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There are more guns -- but fewer gun owners
Shawn Cavana, a member of the NRA who says he personally owns an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, looks into the closed Riverview Gun Sales shop while gun shopping with friends on Dec. 21, 2012 in East Windsor, Conn.
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America's about to engage a new national conversation about guns. In the wake of the Newtown, Conn., tragedy, President Obama has his staff exploring "concrete recommendations" on gun policy when the new Congress begins next month.
The National Rifle Association is talking, too. Sunday, NRA's executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, said new gun controls will not "make one difference." But the NRA's challenge is, its target demographic is shrinking.
In 1980, half of American households said they owned a gun; today it's a third. There are many factors experts offer, including more households headed by single women, the absence of a draft introducing young people to guns, fewer Americans living in rural places.
"If the culture that supports gun ownership is itself changing," says New York University political scientist Patrick Egan, "then that's a challenge for any membership organization that is trying to speak -- not only to those prospective members -- but also to the broader society at large."
Egan says gun ownership is also more partisan, as fewer Democrats nowadays own guns.
A rational reaction would be to target the niche. And NRA critic Josh Sugarman at the Violence Policy Center thinks the association is doing that; he says it's relying less on contributions from gun owners, and more on money from manufacturers and distributors.
"They're now forced to identify new funding sources and new funding pools," Sugarman says. "And that's the gun industry. Today's NRA is a wholly owned subsidiary of the gun industry."
Sugarman's research has found the NRA has more corporate partnerships than before. He argues that puts the group in a tough position: assault weapons are big sellers. So reinstating a federal ban would undercut a key contributor.
Still, no one's counting the NRA out in the short run, especially when gun owners feels under siege.
"At the moment when the threat is pretty much at Defcon 5," says former NRA lobbyist Richard Feldman, now running the rival Independent Firearm Owners Association. "I expect to see NRA's membership climb to well over five million. It might approach six million."
Feldman says the NRA thrives on crisis moments, even as demographic trends may work against it.
BusyPoorDad and Casey, you are both right. Who would admit anything for a survey or to someone you don't know?
That info they are getting for this story is old and stale.
Now, women and the young are the new buyers. I have a relative that caters to introducing women to shooting, for a fee. These women almost invariably are there for self-defense reasons.
The student gets a soup-to-nuts, 3 hour class, ending with some hands-on shooting. This is outside a large, liberal city. My relation is training at least 224 women per month.
Also, it seems to be hip nowadays for young people to have guns. I am seeing way more younger people buying guns and getting out to shoot them.
This meme of shrinking numbers of gunowners that the press is pushing is wrong, people are out in droves right now, buying guns. I would be surprised if by the next election, there is anyone who is not a gun owner in this country.
It was not to long ago that the media stories were about how the "eviiiile" gun companies were developing ad campaigns at women and "gasp" minorities! Oh the horror! Attracting these people who can't be trusted to make good choices, what evil companies they are! Now, even though gun sales have gone up every year since 2001, breaking records every year, they are trying to tell us that these sales are just to existing owners who are building up stock piles of weapons?
The GOA, SAF and JPFO have for years urged people not to talk about their gun ownership on the phone or to their doctors. We could be seeing that here. I know that I see new people at the gun stores all the time, many are buying for the first time. The ranges are getting crowded here also with people taking lessons and beginner classes.
But that does not fit the story they want to tell: "gun owners are going away, give it time and they will be a small group we can ignore and ridicule. Those crazy gun nuts, thinking they have a right to keep and bear arms. Don't they know rights are things that governments let them have and can change at any time."
Really? 1/3? Keep telling yourself that Brady bunch.
Ring Ring...Hello Mr or Mrs America I am doing a survey for uhhh mumble mumble.. and I was wondering if you have any guns in the house?
Mr or Mrs Gunowner" Who is this? Guns...uhh no I don't have any guns. I lost them all in a tragic boating accident?"
