NRA claim: 100,000 new members since Sandy Hook shootings
A Smith & Wesson .357 magnum revolver is displayed for customers to rent at the Los Angeles Gun Club on December 7, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. Gun enthusiasts rent the the weapon to try out before making a purchase at a gun store . Leading firearms maker Smith & Wesson reports almost 50 percent increase in sales revenue.
Sources at the National Rifle Association have told Politico that the gun lobby has gained more than 100,000 new members since 20 children and 6 teachers were shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14.
The number of new paid members has increased from 4.1 million to 4.2 million, NRA officials said, according to Politico.
“Our goal is to get to 5 million before this debate is over,” an NRA source told Politico reporter Mike Allen.
“The NRA is hearing not just from Beltway elites and the chattering class, but real Americans all over the country that are hoping the NRA is not going to compromise on any of the principles of the Second Amendment, nor are we going to support banning guns,” the official told Politico.
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The Atlantic Wire noted that the NRA has not revealed how many people have canceled their memberships since the Sandy Hook shootings.
While the NRA may be vague about its exact membership numbers, it appears that Newtown massacre has not eroded the organization’s popularity in the United States.
In a Gallup survey conducted in the four days following the Sandy Hook shootings, 54 percent of respondents said they had a favorable opinion of the NRA, according to Bloomberg News. On one of the days Gallup conducted the survey, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre held a press conference in which he declared, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
Gallup researchers found that, in the wake of Newtown, more than 80 percent of Republicans and a slight majority of independents had favorable views of the NRA, Bloomberg News reported. (Less than 40 percent of Democrats felt the same way.)
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