Not your (NRA) America Anymore....

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Mehavy, that chart you post to support your conclusion looks like it's correlating education and support for gun rights, not a demographic of gun owners.

The percentages shown in the chart, do seem to closely mirror the education levels of Americans in that it shows about 1/4 with college, but the three graph lines are meaningless in terms of gun ownership and education.
 
BFD that 52% answered that they opposed stricter gun control laws. Without knowing the margin for error, 52% is a virtual tie. Plus the question is loaded by the use of the word "stricter". Then we have no idea who was surveyed . . .
 
The issue is support of gun rights, not ownership.

That the best score ("high school or less") was 50/50 should concern you.
50-50 is literally flip of the coin... and the more educated you are, it approaches 3-2 against.
Again, look at the DATA -- across the board (including ownership and its effects).
I assure you the liberal staffers are. :mad:

And again, look at Mark Dice
Like it or not, this is what you are dealing with.

.
 
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Let me tell you a story about a POLL...
Take it for what you think its worth...

Back during the early Clinton years, I knew a fellow who had somehow gotten on some pollsters list. They would call him about every 3 months and ask how he felt about the Pres., and the job he was doing.

My friend was an old famer, and about as political as the rocks on his farm. He had, literally no interest, and therefore always said he was fine with the President, and fine with the job he was doing.

He did this for 2 years. Then, just to be ornery, he decided the next time, he would change his answer. When they called again, he told them he didn't like the President, and was not happy with the job he was doing.

They NEVER called him again!!!!!


The polls show what the polls show, but my experience is that MAYBE it is reality, and maybe it isn't!!!
 
I find it hard to believe you would use the Washington Post as a source for objective reporting on what the American people think about the NRA. It's been my experience that for at least the last 20 years(that's as long as I've paid attention to them)they are very liberal in their views and definitely left leaning. They just report the liberal party agenda. A poll or statistics are the most over abused tools to back up an agenda and make it appear creditable as you will find. Check out "The Washington Times" if you have to quote a paper from D.C. They are somewhat more believable in my opinion.
 
People who are socially active and want to share their opinions with the world respond to polls.

People who are politically active and want to translate their opinions into action contact their legislators and vote.
 
The main problem with the article is that the author attempts to draw a lot of conclusions from only one source: a Pew Research Poll. For one thing, the conclusions that the author tries to draw are pretty much directly contradicted by another poll from Gallup:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/186284/despite-criticism-nra-enjoys-majority-support.aspx

In this poll, the NRA is viewed favorably not only on the whole, but also among self-identified moderates and, albeit by a slight margin, among non-gun owners.

Also, the author makes the mistake of assuming that just because a particular group is in the minority (in this case whites) that said group will be on the losing side of a political issue. African Americans are and always have been a minority in the U.S., yet they are still a very powerful and influential group in American politics. Likewise, the LGBT community has enjoyed several political victories in the past few years despite comprising only 3.8% of the population.

Finally, he's assuming that total for/against support translates directly to voters at a ballot box, but it doesn't. This is why you often see certain polling agencies conduct polls of likely voters as opposed to simply registered voters. Simply put, a very large percentage of the population (>40%) doesn't even vote at all and a larger percentage still probably only turns out for the Presidential elections every four years. Also, he's assuming that everyone who says that they support gun control feels so strongly about it that they will always vote for whichever candidate supports gun control. There are lots of issues that a given person might consider when deciding who he/she is going to vote for and gun control isn't always the most important one.

Also, people who oppose gun control tend to feel more strongly about it than those who support gun control according to this Pew poll from 2013:

http://www.people-press.org/2013/05/23/broad-support-for-renewed-background-checks-bill-skepticism-about-its-chances/

In particular, by a 41-31% margin, gun control opponents are more likely to never vote for someone who disagrees with them on the issue than gun control supporters. Likewise, gun control opponents are more likely to contribute money to an organization which supports their position and to contact elected officials.
 
Well...

If the Washington Post is out to slander the NRA and

deceive their members, supporters and effect their public support

they certainly got mehavey!
 
80 million legal gun owners in the United States, 4 million NRA members world wide. if all the NRA members were Americans that's still only 5% of the gun owners supporting the biggest voice they have in D.C.

that is a sad state of affairs....
 
If the Washington Post is out to slander the NRA and
deceive their members, supporters and effect their public support
they certainly got mehavey!
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That statement reminds me of those pilots through the years who've crashed at night/in fog because they will not trust what their instruments are telling them, and instead fly the feelings in the seat of their pants -- right into the ground.
 
Yes, but when your deceived you won't properly read to radar and flying by the wrong radar is worse!


Here's you some numbers:

An October 22 Gallup poll reveals the NRA’s favorable rating is 58 percent, while an aggregation of polls shows that Democrat presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton’s favorable rating is about 42 percent.

This means the NRA, which Clinton repeatedly attacked during the October 13 Democrat debate, is the same NRA that can now boast of beating her by double digits in the minds and hearts of Americans.


According to Gallup, the NRA’s overall favorable rating of 58 percent is five percent higher than it was in 1989, which is when Gallup began inquiring about Americans’ view of the NRA. Moreover, the percentage of Americans who view the NRA as “very favorable” is at an all-time high of 26 percent.
Click to expand...
 
I'd offer that wrong radar and wrong instruments are few & far between compared to pilot error from refusal to pay heed.

That said, the Pew data in this case maps out what smart operative (both pro & con) need target to bring up the vote.
As before, the anti's use this data to great effect, and you might notice so does the NRA in their ads

The libs hate that (read the comment section).
 
Less educated?

Granted that NRA members might not represent a valid cross section of the demographics of legal gun owners, but I seem to remember many years ago seeing data that showed that NRA members had above average education and income. Does anyone else remember that? Anyone recall the source?
 
Originally posted by mehavey
That statement reminds me of those pilots through the years who've crashed at night/in fog because they will not trust what their instruments are telling them, and instead fly the feelings in the seat of their pants -- right into the ground.
Click to expand...

I'd offer that wrong radar and wrong instruments are few & far between compared to pilot error from refusal to pay heed.
Click to expand...

The problem is, the author of this article is like a pilot who only looks at one instrument and ignores all the others. He's jumping to a lot of conclusions based on Pew's data, and those conclusions are pretty much directly contradicted by the Gallup poll I posted earlier.

You see, the problem with polls is that a savvy pollster can make them say pretty much anything he likes depending upon who he asks (you can't ask all 300 Million people in the country), where the people he asks are located, when he asks, and how he asks the question.

Now, if the author could come up with several polls conducted independently of each other which all say basically the same thing, I might be a little more worried, but that isn't the case. In this instance, the author is cherry picking data from a single source which supports what he wants to be true.
 
Granted that NRA members might not represent a valid cross section of the demographics of legal gun owners, but I seem to remember many years ago seeing data that showed that NRA members had above average education and income. Does anyone else remember that? Anyone recall the source?
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I recall the factoid, but not the source. I suspect the difference is you're talking about NRA members, those motivated enough to actually pay for membership and the author of the Post article is talking about NRA supporters, those sympathetic to the NRA's cause, who may or may not be paying members.
 
I went back and looked again at the article linked in the OP, and you are correct, the author cites "support for the NRA" and not NRA membership.

And while the author is pretty consistent about saying "gun control over gun rights", I think this sentence is a "Freudian slip", and shows how the issue is likely being presented to those being polled.

Gun control is extremely popular among Hispanics, with 75 percent favoring gun safety over gun rights.
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Ask people (who don't realize they have any personal stake in the matter) which is more important, safety or rights, and what kind of answer do you think most likely?

Safety vs. Rights has already shown Rights loses often in late 20th and 21st century America. You could frame it as Safety vs. Free Will, (which, essentially, it is) and that loses, too. By the numbers.

And, particularly when the numbers are the huge aggregate totals of "costs" nationwide. Seat belt and helmet laws are a couple of examples. WE, as a group, gave up our RIGHT to free will, and we now have LAWS where we used to have choice.

Gun control laws continuously PROMISE SAFETY. To date, I don't see where they have delivered. And I don't see how ANY of them could.
 
Granted that NRA members might not represent a valid cross section of the demographics of legal gun owners, but I seem to remember many years ago seeing data that showed that NRA members had above average education and income. Does anyone else remember that? Anyone recall the source?
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Many years ago the ranks of gun owners were broader as hunting and sport shooting were more common.
 
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