I keep seeing this quote thrown around. Most recently it was tweeted by the Clinton Campaign along with a confusing and incorrect Venn Diagram.
I had to wonder where does this number come from? The NRA rightly counters that its membership is PRIVATE and the surveyors have no way of knowing that.
I did some quick Googling to so-called "Political/fact Check" websites and confirmed that they confirm them as "true". Hmm...
This one: http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2015/mar/18/lena-taylor/most-nra-members-back-background-checks-all-gun-pu/
seems the most honest. They actually admit that they had to search for a source to confirm it. Talk about pre-determining things.
"In March 2013, Lee Leffingwell, then the mayor of Austin, Texas, made a two-part claim that includes the claim Taylor made. He said 90 percent of Americans and 74 percent of NRA members support background checks of gun purchasers. PolitiFact Texas rated his claim True.
The key evidence was an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine on a poll done in January 2013 by two entities at Johns Hopkins University -- the Department of Health Policy and Management and the Center for Gun Policy and Research.
The poll was conducted online among 2,703 adults -- including 169 NRA members -- through GfK Knowledge Networks, which specializes in working with academic and government researchers to do polling online. It recruits participants randomly via mail and telephone.
The poll found that 74 percent (to be precise, 73.7 percent) of NRA members supported requiring background checks for all gun sales. (The margin of error was seven points.)"
Ok, here are my problems that should be obvious to any reader (except apparently for the authors of the article):
1. It was an ONLINE survey
2. 2,703 participants
3. 169 self-identified NRA Members
This is the basis for making the claim that 74% of NRA members support "universal background checks"!
When the validity was questioned by the NRA the authors responded:
"...it is a common practice in polling to ask respondents to identify whether they are members of, for example, a political party or other group."
169 online responses is how they justify claims about what the NRA Membership believe.
Unbelievable. Remember that next time you read a "fact check."
