Pew survey says NRA has 14 million members!

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In Newspeak, they "self identify" as NRA.

NRA said:
For some, it could be that their membership has lapsed and for others, they might consider a family member’s membership part of their own.

... Mike Bloomberg, Everytown, the Trace, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Americans for Responsible Solutions, Slate, the Center for American Progress, and Moveon.org, have all claimed to know where NRA members stand on gun control based on population samples that were diluted with non-members.

I'm a little more cautious in concluding what happened with the poll. I could talk about methodology and sampling. But the NRA's conclusion stands without delving into all that social science drivel. Nearly two out of three NRA members cited aren't.

Hmm.
 
Pew treats the opinions of the 5 million NRA members + the opinions of the 9 million self-identified transNRA members as = the opinions of NRA members.

Personally, I like to see the survey sampling method (how random), call opening spiel ("Hello, I am calling for Xyz, We are doing a survey on Abc, May I have a minute or two to get your opinion on Abc? Thank you. As you know, Abc is a matter of national concern ..." ), the actual questions, the actual answers. Not the political spin of the polling firm or the sponsor of the poll.

Wright, Rossi, and Daly "Under The Gun" (Aldine, 1983), Chapter 11 looked at two polls, one sponsored by the National Rifle Association and the other by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Handgun Violence and showed how results can be skewed.

Quote a review: "They discussed the data showing that gun owners - rather then being a violent, aberrant group of nuts - were at least as psychologically stable and morally sound as the rest of the population. Polls claiming to show that a large majority of the population favored "more gun control" were debunked as being the product of biased questions, and of the fact that most people have no idea how strict gun laws already are. As the scholars frankly admitted, they had started out their research as gun control advocates, and had been forced to change their minds by a careful review of the evidence." -- Dave Kopel, Independence Institute

I believe that a study that asked basic questions about existing federal gun law, then followed with questions about more gun control demonstrated that support for more gun control exists among those least knowledgeable about existing gun laws.
 
I'm glad for the activism, and a little saddened by how few people are actually paying members.

That being said, the NRA has pissed me off with some of their support for gun laws from time to time.

Sometimes I feel like they are more interested in lobbying than defending 'shall not be infringed'.

Personally I prefer JPFO or GOA.

But I'll take an imperfect solid front over divided smaller groups trying to make a stand.
 
It is interesting that people would claim to be NRA members if they are not, but it is a fairly radical change. Not too long ago, NRA members were leery of telling pollsters the truth because some newspapers sent out fake pollsters who were told to call the police and file false crime reports on anyone who admitted owning a gun.

Jim
 
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That's the stupidest conclusion I've seen. So they happened to get a higher percentage of members in their little sample, those people could absolutely be members, its not like they actually polled 14 million people. If I sampled X amount of people and found that 7 out of 10 owned a yacht I would not conclude that 226 million Americans own yachts..
 
There are a lot of forums that are weapon related with a ton of folks who post . All talking about this or that.
But I `ll bet in reality many of those "posters' have never been NRA members.
To bad. They reap the benefits of paying members. Free loaders!
 
100% of the people that are me own guns... you can often make stats and polls and data say whatever you want.

"Instead, Pew surveyed a population which over-reported their membership status..." That's not an exact number of people...maybe I need to reread for the exact number of people surveyed? There's also the NRA saying why people over-reported, but not citing it. The NRA is as biased as anyone in promoting what it wants.
 
There's no surprise in this. There are always two and three times as many supporters as there are paying members of any organization. That there are 200% as many non paying "members" as paying ones on the books isn't surprising.
 
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although im a member of the NRA i dont care much for them... a lot of gun grabbers running the NRA.

Iv been a member of the GOA for the last few years, vastly better pro gun organization. membership has been growing fast the last few years. from 300,000 to 1.5 million. also being a 501c4 they can use 100% of membership to lobby where as the NRA cant (501c3)
 
Ahem, the thread is on the Pew survey instead of whether we dislike or support the NRA.

The same stats from PEW probably apply to any national or even regional organization whether it is GOA, SAF, NRA or even ... MDM:thumbdown:. There are always more fans than paying members of any organization.

What's good about the Pew survey is that it points out that there are 2 or 3 times as many voters that think of themselves as NRA members as paying members. MORE of us, whether they pay the membership or not is better and having PEW say so is wonderful.
 
although im a member of the NRA i dont care much for them... a lot of gun grabbers running the NRA.

Iv been a member of the GOA for the last few years, vastly better pro gun organization. membership has been growing fast the last few years. from 300,000 to 1.5 million. also being a 501c4 they can use 100% of membership to lobby where as the NRA cant (501c3)

Quoted for truth.
 
I'm an NRA Life Member, and I never answer polls -- especially polls about gun ownership. And I am not alone. I think you can reasonably extrapolate from this that all polls concerning guns are worthless.
 
.250 Sav wrote:
But I `ll bet in reality many of those "posters' have never been NRA members.

What does that have to do with the accuracy of the Pew survey?

And as far as NRA membership, I was a member until they decided to denounce Federal LEOs and "jackbooted thugs" and implicitly encourage people to shoot us by excusing those who did. I joined President George Bush (Bush '41) when he resigned his life membership. As long as they want to persist with the fiction that people like me were/are a threat to lawful gun ownership they will not see a dime of my money.
 
What does that have to do with the accuracy of the Pew survey?

And as far as NRA membership, I was a member until they decided to denounce Federal LEOs and "jackbooted thugs" and implicitly encourage people to shoot us by excusing those who did. I joined President George Bush (Bush '41) when he resigned his life membership. As long as they want to persist with the fiction that people like me were/are a threat to lawful gun ownership they will not see a dime of my money.

Everyone can find something to disagree with the NRA about; they are far from perfect.

That said, they are the only reason for private gun ownership in the US today; without them, we'd all be worse off than the residents of NYC, at least, and quite possibly as bad off as the Brits.

Failing to support them for a point of disagreement is, IMHO, cutting off one's nose to spite one's face. And for the record, the NRA is generally *very* pro-LEO, especially compared to society as a whole these days.


Larry
 
? Does the PEW study consider a life member a paying member? I'm one so I no longer pay. The NRA did not help much in the Heller or McDonald cases, so if I were polled I might be marked down as anti NRA. Any time they call for donations to help with the latest crisis I tell them NO, and to call back after Wayne Lapierre is fired.
 
What does that have to do with the accuracy of the Pew survey?

And as far as NRA membership, I was a member until they decided to denounce Federal LEOs and "jackbooted thugs" and implicitly encourage people to shoot us by excusing those who did. I joined President George Bush (Bush '41) when he resigned his life membership. As long as they want to persist with the fiction that people like me were/are a threat to lawful gun ownership they will not see a dime of my money.

It looks like it is no longer the case. I was surprised to see that NRA has dedicated money from cars for freedom to be used for police benefit.

https://www.nracarsforfreedom.com/

I'm an NRA Life Member, and I never answer polls -- especially polls about gun ownership. And I am not alone. I think you can reasonably extrapolate from this that all polls concerning guns are worthless.

Indeed you are not alone in this regard.
 
Interesting topic. Be careful drawing conclusions.


Just a note to help get some perspective on how people answer polls:
  • When the pollsters ask if a person is Republican, they get more people saying Yes than actual voter registration in that party.
  • When the pollsters ask if a person is a Democrat, they get more people saying Yes than actual voter registration in that party.
  • Same with every other party affiliation. People say Yes to the ideology closest to their own beliefs, even though they lack credentialed membership.
  • Not everyone who claims party affiliation is actually registered in that party.
People often adopt general ideologies as labels, whether social or religious or political.
Doesn't mean they are card carrying, it's just a label that matches their beliefs.
Surely seems that gun owners and gun rights supporters are NRA-type people, even if not actual members.
 
Benefactor member, Stopped sending money when they became weak. Threatened to leave if they endorsed the Senator from Nevada, which they backed off from. I miss Harlon Carter.
 
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