i am a life member. i make regular donations, i dont care about the calls, i just ignore them.  my point is, i know of at least three people nra has lost from aggressive solicitation.  imo, they need to rethink that strategy.

On the surface, Winkler’s demographic argument looks damning, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately for Winkler and the politicians that are buying into his sophomoric line of reasoning, he’s guilty of assuming that
attitudes and ideas within social groups remain static, even as every variable around and inside those groups are rapidly
changing.

Winkler’s assumption is that support of guns rights is a phenomena that is white, rural, and less-educated, and static.

Winkler assumes that because the NRA and other gun rights groups have traditionally drawn their strength from FOWGs
(fat old white guys) that gun rights only appeal to white, rural and less-educated people. He and people like him are stuck
in the past, thinking of what many of us have taken to calling “Gun Culture 1.0.”

Here in reality, we’ve been discussing the explosive growth of a group that Winkler and his demographic experts haven’t
yet discovered, which has been dubbed “Gun Culture 2.0.” It’s younger, tends to be more highly educated, more urban
and suburban, more wealthy, and occupies a rainbow of colors, faiths, and political beliefs that transcends a simply two-party
dichotomy.

We know that black gun ownership is one of the fastest-growing segments of gun ownership. The National Shooting Sports
Foundation (NSSF) has been documenting for several years the the fastest growing demographic groups are young, urban
and female. The NSSF spent their recent industry summit in Savannah, Georgia, focusing on the needs of the rising tide of
Hispanic gun owners… a group Winkler and anti-gun Democrats doesn’t seem to recognize as existing, even as the firearms
industry is shifting to meet the dramatically increasing demand from this group.

Winkler doesn’t seem to grasp that he’s citing old, static data, not rapidly emerging trends.

Blacks have radically changed their minds on gun control in the past two years, with 54-percent of blacks now seeing gun
ownership as a good thing, up from 29 percent in 2013. In many parts of the nation, minority gun ownership and concealed
carry permit applications are rising even as concealed carrying is slowing (but still rising) among whites.

Life member. Associates, bachelors, masters. not white.