Page 179 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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Political Organizations
of the group following the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan that
wounded her husband, James Brady. The Brady Campaign is dwarfed by
theNRA,whichisseveraltimeslargerinmembershipandbudget.During
the 1984 election cycle when Congress considered the McClure-Volkmer
bill, a major piece of gun legislation, the NRA outspent Handgun Control
six to one in PAC donations. 129 This type of imbalance in resources is
typical.
A key element in gun control policy dynamics in the United States is
the fact that a number of the NRA’s positions are at odds with public
opinion. Survey data show that nearly 90 percent of the public favors a
seven-daywaitingperiodforgunpurchases,about80percentfavorsaban
on assault weapons and handgun registration, and roughly 40 percent
favorsabanonhandguns. 130 Althoughtheyfluctuatealittle,thesefigures
are for the most part stable over time. Between 40 percent and 50 percent
of Americans report owning a gun. 131 Not surprisingly, gun ownership is
correlated with opposition to gun control measures, but the relationship
iscomparativelyweakforgun-controlpoliciesotherthananoutrightban
on handguns. Gallup data show that in excess of 60 percent of gun owners
support registration, waiting periods, and banning of assault weapons
and cheap handguns. 132
Thelong-term,stabledisparitybetweenpublicpolicyandpublicopin-
ion on gun control in the United States is almost certainly attributable at
least in part to the effectiveness of the NRA’s members and money. 133 The
stateofpublicopinionlimitsthegeneralappealoftheNRA’smessageout-
side its own ranks, and so tends to push the organization toward internal
mobilization of its own membership as a “grassroots” strategy. For that,
the organization uses tactics that would likely not be particularly effec-
tive with the broader public. It uses strong appeals to patriotism and the

129
Langbein and Lotwis, “The Political Efficacy of Lobbying and Money.” The McClure-
Volkmer bill became the Firearms Owners Protection Act of 1986, which weakened
gun control measures.
130
Robin M. Wolpert and James G. Gimpel, “Self-Interest, Symbolic Politics, and Public
Attitudes toward Gun Control,” Political Behavior 20, no. 3 (1998): 241–262; also
see Robert J. Spitzer, The Politics of Gun Control (New York: Chatham House, 1995);
Robert Singh, “Gun Control in America,” Political Quarterly 69, no. 3 (1998): 288–
296.
131
Gregg Lee Carter, The Gun Control Movement (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1997);
Wolpert and Gimpel, “Self-Interest, Symbolic Politics, and Public Attitudes Toward
Gun Control.”
132
Reported in Carter, The Gun Control Movement,p.51.
133
See John M. Bruce and Clyde Wilcox, eds., The Changing Politics of Gun Control
(Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998).
162