Gun owners grill Obama at town hall, NRA sits it out

[branford]

8. Sigh..., you're drawing conclusion based upon preconceived biases.

The NRA didn't attend the CNN "debate" because it wasn't a real debate and they had nothing to gain. The CNN "town hall" was a choreographed event for the benefit of the President, coordinated with CNN and its gun control support positions, and containing a hand-picked selected audience. Despite offers in the past to actually debate the president and top Democrats in more academic or objective settings where the administration didn't have complete control, all were refused for precisely the same reason why the NRA didn't show-up to CNN. Note also that NRA representatives often appear on CNN when they are actually afforded an real opportunity to speak on a relatively equal footing. For instance, they appeared all the time with Piers Morgan despite his rabid gun control positions. Ironically, his show is now extinct, and the NRA continues to garner new members and donations.

NRA Membership: Assuming arguendo Mother Jones is correct (which many dispute and the article is from 2 years ago), and further assuming the NRA has not added a single new member in two years, they would still have over 3 million actual dues paying members! If you believe that's a sign of their near death, there are multitudes of very prominent liberal organizations (including ALL gun control groups) who would desperately love to be in such "bad" shape.

I also already noted that the NRA only represents about 5% of gun owners. However, this doesn't change the fact that the organization is still the de facto spokesman for gun owners and gun rights policy, with no major opposition or competition (although the Second Amendment Foundation has taken the lead in firearm litigation with the full support of the NRA). If this wasn't the case, the NRA wouldn't be referenced so frequently by the president and other gun control supporters. More importantly, if they and their positions were a fraction as weak as you imply, gun control would be the law of the land. That is obviously not the case.

Alleged support for universal background checks is also a very minor aspect of the overall polling that supports gun rights and is increasing. In fact, I would argue that if the Democrats weren't so patently foolish to advocate for and attach such unpopular measures like a new assault weapon ban and magazine to the UBC bill after Sandy Hook, it would be the law today. Gun control advocates are often their worst enemies, demanding too much, and getting nothing.

Here's some more recent and pertinent polling and related articles for your review:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/04/24/5-facts-about-the-nra-and-guns-in-america/
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2015/oct/02/mass-shootings-have-no-impact-on-support-for-gun-rights-in-the-us
http://www.gallup.com/poll/179213/six-americans-say-guns-homes-safer.aspx
http://www.gallup.com/poll/179045/less-half-americans-support-stricter-gun-laws.aspx
http://www.people-press.org/2014/12/10/growing-public-support-for-gun-rights/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/20/opinion/charles-blow-has-the-nra-won.html


Of course, you are still free to wait for the NRA's extinction and the golden age of strict firearm regulation. We've heard this tune for decades. Besides the Second Amendment problems with most gun control dreams in the USA, I wouldn't hold your breadth waiting for the NRA's demise.