Everytown and their associated groups are really little more than a vehicle for Michael Bloomberg to push his anti-gun agenda and make it look like a grassroots effort to combat gun violence. While they do get donations from other people, the lion’s share of their funding comes from Bloomberg and we all know it. Even the media knows it, though they rarely point that fact out.

Instead, they pretend like all is well.

That’s especially true when Everytown pledges to drop a lot of money to flip a state legislature.

A gun violence prevention group is pledging to spend at least $1 million to flip the Iowa House of Representatives to Democratic control this fall, a signal that outside organizations are willing to spend heavily to compete for control of the Statehouse.

Controlling the Iowa House is a top priority for Democrats and Republicans this fall. Republicans hold a 53-47 advantage, meaning Democrats could win the House if they flip four seats from Republican control. That would mean Republicans would no longer simultaneously control the Iowa House, Senate and governor’s office, which they have done since after the 2016 election.

The gun group, Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund, is targeting 15 state House races in the suburbs of Iowa’s major cities. The group is the political arm of Everytown for Gun Safety, a nationwide gun violence prevention organization co-founded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who also campaigned to be president.

This looks like a variation on the effort used to flip Virginia by targeting similar areas where Everytown believes they can find undecideds to back anti-gun candidates they might not otherwise.

And, in Virginia, it worked.

Of course, Virginia ain’t Iowa.

The big suburb that likely carried the day in Virginia was the areas around Washington, D.C. That’s a political demographic that’s likely to be somewhat different than you’d find in the suburbs of DesMoines.

But hey, they’re welcome to throw their money away if they want to. After all, money they blow on potentially lost causes is money they can’t use later for something else. That’s a win for us, after all.

However, what really bugs me about Everyone and their efforts is that it’s absolutely no different to what groups like the NRA do when it comes to elections. And yet, the NRA is the one accused of buying politicians and other shady behavior simply because they engage in political spending…just like Everytown.

It’s a double standard that few in the media ever bother to even pretend exists. They’d much rather act like Everytown’s motives are as pure as the driven snow and that everything the NRA does is sinister as hell without ever having to explain the difference between the two. If they did, they’d have to acknowledge that Everytown does little except try to influence elections while the NRA does plenty else.

But that’s just too inconvenient for them.

Still, Everytown is going to blow a million in Iowa. Is that enough to make a difference? Probably not, even if the spending actually works. Yet another way to throw their money away.

So, I guess it isn’t all bad.