I've noticed the #BoycottNRA movement, which sprang up after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. I've been surprised at some of the large companies which have
chosen to cut ties with the NRA - to stop offering member discounts and branded credit cards, and in some cases to quit selling guns. Not all companies are joining the boycott, of course. But enough have done so that,
according to the Economist, a backlash against the boycott is brewing among NRA supporters and conservatives. So we face a war of boycotts. Who will win?
To consider that, I want to look at some numbers.
- The U.S. Census Bureau and the World Bank estimate the population of the U.S. in 2017 at 325.7 million people.
- The NRA has 5 million members, by its own report. That is .015% of the U.S. population. I'm sure it has non-member supporters but I haven't seen the numbers.
In February 2018,
Time magazine reported on a Quinnipiac University poll on stricter gun control laws. The article contains a link to the Quinnipiac polling site:
Sixty-six percent of respondents said they would support more stringent laws, while just 31% said they would not.
If you take that as representative of the U.S. population, and it was intended to be, that's quite a difference from the members who agree with the NRA. Even among gun owners, "50% were in favor" of more stringent gun laws, and 44% were not.
