NCJ Number
149348
Journal
Violence and Victims Volume: 8 Issue: 4 Dated: (Winter 1993) Pages: 367-376
Date Published
1993
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This commentary critiques the findings and methodology of a survey interpreted by Weil and Hemenway to show that members of the National Rifle Association (NRA) have some differences with the NRA regarding gun control policy.
Abstract
The authors' main conclusion is that the NRA's policy positions are significantly in conflict with the views of its members and of gun owners in general. Their evidence, however, shows no such conflict, except in the case of the minor issue of gun registration. Even this minor conflict is not convincingly established because the data set used by the authors is flawed by error in measuring NRA membership and a serious sample bias. Once their various caveats are inserted, the authors concede that it is "old news" that the NRA has more anticontrol views than gun owners in general; also, it is common that the NRA, like other interest groups, has stronger views than its rank-and-file members. Since the authors' final conclusions are exclusively confined to these issues, the research offers nothing significant. The only justification for disseminating these technically questionable findings is apparently to portray the NRA as an undemocratic organization that unfairly thwarts the will of the people, including gun owners and its own members. 16 references