mr.72 wrote:Charles L. Cotton wrote:
The NRA doesn't have an image problem, except with a very small percentage of gun owners who choose not to join for one reason or another. The recent Zogby polls prove that beyond a doubt. Even though some members may not support all aspects of the Second Amendment, as long as they are members and contribute money, then the organization will continue to be the strongest, most powerful civil rights lobby in the world.
Chas.
Charles, I am very interested in this Zogby poll. I tried to google it and couldn't find anything like this. I guess I am looking for the wrong thing.
As far as a "very small percentage of gun owners who choose not to join for one reason or another", well I read one statistic that suggests there are 40-80 million gun owners in the USA, and only 4 million or so of them are members of the NRA. Are these the right numbers? If so then it suggests that 90-95% of gun owners have chosen not to join for one reason or another. I don't have any idea what those reasons might be, but I think that if it is true that the NRA is only attracting 10% of gun owners to join, that represents a great opportunity for the NRA to grow, or for another organization to fill the void.
Once a year, Zogby does their "big" poll that covers all kinds of topics. The poll I'm talking about was the 2007 "big" poll; I'm not sure if Zogby did one this year, since it was a major Presidential election year. He may have and I just didn't see it. The subject matter of the polls changes each year, although there are some topics that appear in almost every poll. The question that sticks in my mind was the response to the question "Do you agree with the NRA" and the responses "All the time" and "Most of the time" made up something around 70% of the responses. I'll see if I can get a copy from NRA HQ and post them here.
The estimates of gun owners is somewhere around 80 million, but that's grossly low. As recently as 25 years ago, the estimates were around 125 to 150 million and I don't think gun ownership has gone down. I think it's more likely that people today just won't say "yes" to a question about gun ownership.
Why have only 4 million of those 100+ million gun owners joined the NRA? My guess is that many gun owners presume the NRA is so big and powerful that there is no need or benefit in them joining. Also, let's face it, many people are willing to let the proverbial "other guy" do it and simply don't take the time to join. As Wildbill said, money is probably a reason some people don't join, but I suspect that may be more of an excuse than a legitimate reason for most people. I'm sure there are some people who can't afford to join, but I suspect they are few in number.
The NRA has put a lot of effort and money into changing the public perception of our organization and the effort has been successful. Even people who don't own guns look to the NRA as the savior of the Second Amendment, but since they haven't decided to get a gun (yet), they don't tend to join the NRA. The point I find ironic is that the two groups of people that have a bad image of the NRA are committed anti-gunners like the Brady Campaign, Schumer, Boxer, etc. and a small group of ardent supporters of the Second Amendment who believe the NRA compromises on the Second Amendment. The latter group tend to like the in-your-face approach to legislation erroneously believing that if they are loud enough, they can bully legislatures into passing our bills and killing anti-gun bills. I understand the attraction this approach has for some people, I sometimes feel that way myself, but the scenarios where this tactic works are few and far between. The NRA uses this tactic more often than most people realize, but it does so behind closed doors not publicly. Doing it publicly is counterproductive in most situations and even when it works, it tends to make enemies just waiting for the chance to get even.
Chas.
