It's odd that the two lobbies that seem to be the most hated -- the pro-gun lobby, and the smoking lobby -- strike me as the most defensible.
To nip this in the bud -- yes, the tobacco companies did their best to cover up the dangers of smoking for a long time, and that was grossly immoral. Most of you hadn't been pushed through your mom's birth canal yet when that was happening.
At this time in history, what I'm seeing from those two groups are people just trying to continue to operate freely, and telling the truth at least comparatively to their opponents.
I mean, the anti-smoking campaigners went so far as to release an ad which clearly implied that someone smoking in an apartment could give cancer to a baby in another apartment just because they share a ventilation system. That's pseudoscientific bullshit being used to try to abridge people's rights. Tobacco companies aren't even allowed to advertise on television, in a blatant abridgment of the First Amendment. I've only smoked three cigarettes in my life. I don't have a personal stake in this; but, South Park got it right in their Butt Out episode.
As for guns, seriously, if you can name more instances of misinformation or disinformation from the NRA than I can name from the anti-gun lobby, I'll give you a shiny sticker.
Pro-gun people don't lie about the issue because we don't need to. We don't need to try to bury the last mass shooting the way that the media tries to bury every story involving a defensive use of a gun, because we're right.
They’re trying to wittle away at the last remaining bastion of defense we have to their totalitarian insanity. Hopefully we can keep it going for another few generations.