Whether Mary might pack a gun on that hike could depend upon whether she was traveling as Mary McFate, or as Mary Lou Sapone.
“I guess Mary kind of lived two lives,” Faehner said.
And it was through that work Faehner met Mary McFate, known nationally as a gun-control advocate. She was legislative director at States United to Prevent Gun Violence, and was on the board at Philadelphia-based CeaseFirePA, lobbying Congress directly on behalf of gun control.
And she also appears to have been a spy, planted by the National Rifle Association.
On Friday, officers at CeaseFirePA voted unanimously to remove McFate (Sapone is her married name) from the organization's board, and to explore legal action - trespass, privacy, illegal lobbying, perhaps - against both her and the NRA.
Board members said they took the action because “McFate for years had worked as a secret, paid operative for the NRA, infiltrating gun violence prevention organizations.”
Also on Friday, the public comment period closed on the Department of the Interior plan to allow guns in national parks.
If the plan ultimately is approved, Faehner said his group might challenge the decision in court. It's a strategy they've discussed, he said, and a strategy Mary McFate knows all too well.
“She was privy to some fairly detailed information about how we might proceed,” Faehner said. “It certainly puts us at a disadvantage. On the other hand, we don't have anything to hide. Our concerns about this process have been very public all along.“
“We don't deal in state secrets,” agreed CeaseFirePA board president Phil Goldsmith. “We are working to make our communities safer by reducing handgun violence. The fact that the NRA feels compelled to plant spies in organizations like ours borders on paranoia.”
The fact that 62-year-old Mary McFate and Mary Lou Sapone are one and the same person first was revealed in a July 30 article in Mother Jones magazine, titled “There's Something About Mary: Unmasking a Gun Lobby Mole.”
In the week since that story ran, Sapone has seemingly dropped out of sight.
Some think she's on that trail in Glacier Park. Some say Belize.
“Nobody's heard a word from Mary,” said Thom Mannard, president of States United. “She's completely disappeared.”
Her Florida phone has been disconnected. Her cell phone still works, but she did not return messages left by the Missoulian. Neither did the NRA.
Her fellow CeaseFirePA board members reached out with e-mails and certified letters, asking her to defend herself, but she did not respond. Again, neither did the NRA.
So just how did she insinuate herself into national gun-rights campaigns, including the discussion over loaded guns in parks?
“Mary's long history of working with gun violence prevention groups, her knowledge of the issues, and her willingness to work as a volunteer lobbyist in Congress made her appear to be a good choice for States United's legislative director,” said executive director Barbara Hohlt. “Unlike the NRA, which obviously has plenty of money to spend paying spies for years at a time, States United relies heavily on dedicated volunteers to accomplish the work of the organization.”
Infiltrating “dedicated volunteers” appears to be something of a career for Sapone. In the 1980s, Mother Jones reported, she won the trust of animal rights advocates while working as a spy for a medical research company that used dogs in experiments.
Later, as McFate, she worked her way up the ranks of gun control advocacy - while at the same time, as Sapone, she billed herself as an expert in “covert operations” and intelligence and investigations,” and listed both hunting and shooting sports as hobbies.
Mother Jones revealed her latest undercover work when a Maryland security firm - for which Sapone worked as a subcontractor - was sued by an investor. Documents released to the court showed Sapone worked for the security firm, and that the NRA was a client.
The firm's president later confirmed Sapone did investigative work directly for the NRA. And the company - which specialized in spying on advocacy groups for corporate clients - received tens of thousands of dollars from the NRA at a time Sapone also was “working” for the gun-control advocates, the magazine reported.
If she was, in fact, a spy, Faehner said, “then the NRA will have effectively spied on our ongoing efforts to keep visitors and wildlife safe in our national parks.” He called that prospect “a troubling display of the lengths to which the NRA will go to further its agenda.”
The NRA, by its own admission, wrote the letter - signed by senators and addressed to Interior - that led directly to the national park gun proposal now being pushed by the Bush administration.
“There has been pressure, top down, from the White House” to change the rules, Faehner said.
For decades, since the 1930s, guns have been allowed in national parks, but only unloaded and properly stowed. Opponents say allowing loaded firearms will put both visitors and wildlife in danger, while proponents say tourists must be armed for their own safety.
Six former directors of the National Park Service have joined in opposition to the change, as have the 11,000-member Association of National Park Rangers, the Ranger Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, and the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, whose 640 members have a combined 19,000 years experience managing national parks.
“The consensus is overwhelming,” Faehner said. “This proposal is a bad idea.”
Even Mary seemed to think so.
“I had talked with her on and off about this issue over the last several months,” Faehner said. “She took part in several confidential phone calls.”
Mannard, at States United, also participated in those calls, and agrees “we kept her in the loop. She always had a strong desire to be included in every conference call or meeting.”
Mannard, for one, feels “she compromised our ability to be effective. It's a violation of the whole idea of an open and fair and honest public comment process.”
Now, the gun-control groups are sweeping their offices for bugs, and scanning computers for spyware, “something completely new to us,” Mannard said.
They're also wondering who in Congress she lobbied, and how much the politicians knew. They'd also like to know whether Mary reported directly to the NRA, or to the firm with which NRA contracted.
Faehner admits that the nation's capital is a messy political place, “where there's a lot going on and everyone's pushing an agenda.
“But for the most part,” he said, “I think most groups are playing by the rules. We are, certainly. We want to be recognized and respected by people in Congress.”
Which is awfully hard to do, he said, when people intentionally misrepresent themselves.
The new park gun rules, if approved, would create what Faehner calls a “confusing patchwork of jurisdiction,” with each state applying its own gun laws to national parks within its borders. Parks that straddle state lines would have multiple rules, depending upon which campground a visitor was in.
“We feel that the current regulation is working just fine,” Faehner said. “It's been working just fine for many, many decades.”
In fact, the current rule was last updated by a strong NRA supporter, Ronald Reagan.
The plan to upend those rules drew thousands of comments from the public, Faehner said, and “now that the comment period has closed, we'll be looking for the administration to abandon this politically-motivated proposal.”
There's been no word from Interior, however, regarding which way it might rule or even when a decision might be made.
“I can't speculate,” Faehner agreed. “We'll just have to wait and see what happens.”
And if it happens that opponents must fight the change in court, “then I truly hope that Mary's involvement doesn't compromise our effort. We're extremely troubled by what's happened here. This is why we have a disclosure system for lobbyists - the public needs to know who is who, and who can be trusted.”
Reach reporter Michael Jamison at 1-800-366-7186 or by at mjamison@missoulian.com.
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)