We have often wondered what the true membership numbers of the Brady Campaign are. In 2004 they said they had “about half a million”.
Since they are selling their membership list we now know what are probably close to the true numbers:
50,581 DONORS/MEMBERS (TOTAL FILE)
40,765 DONORS/MEMBERS (24 MOS)
28,417 DONORS/MEMBERS (12 MOS)
9,590 CATHOLIC DONORS/MEMBERS (36 MOS)
5,368 JEWISH DONORS/MEMBERS (36 MOS)
Founded in 1974 (Formerly known as Handgun Control) this public citizens lobby works for legislative controls and governmental regulations on the manufacture, importation, sale, transfer, and civilian possesion of guns. Activists are individuals who have responded by mail on a gun control issue.
Average Donation $40.00.
So, they have about 50K total “donors/members” on their list. If I’m reading the data correctly only about 28K have donated in the last 12 months.
[sarcasm] It appears their membership has dropped significantly in the last six years. And to think that in 2001 they had an influx of a million moms too. [/sarcasm]
What is the NRA membership these days? About 4 million? That gives us about a 140:1 ratio, which is fairly typical of the public turnouts I have attended.
The Second Amendment Foundation has over 650K members. That is a ratio of about 23:1.
With an average donation of $40/per donor that means they have an annual income from members of about $1.14 million.
It’s no wonder most politicians give them a cold shoulder these days. In addition to their blatant lies, even if you count their total membership file that is only an average of a little over 1000 members per state. There are gun clubs in some large cities with that many members.
I would find it rather amusing if the NRA bought the list and sent them a little propaganda to inform them of the futility and illegality of their support for the Brady Campaign.
That’s about a 20:1 ratio when compared to the ACLU too if you want to compare it to an organization that’s typically branded as being “lefty” in nature.
Just noticed something. Candidates will occasionally promote their NRA rankings when it suits them. The SAF and ACLU don’t even bother with such things to the best of my knowledge, they just fight battles in court for the most part. Perhaps that’s a conscious decision by them as they know they’re too small to matter in elections. And then we have the Brady Campaign way down at the bottom of the totem pole trying to affect elections with their endorsements.
Makes me wonder if they’re really trying to change anything or just riding along on whatever donations they can get. I have similar thoughts about the GOA but I find them less repugnant for obvious reasons.
That is a very interesting observation.
They are trying to play with the big dogs and yet they must know they are a mere insect.
Oh My Goodness, Joe…
I’m up a little too late tonight, but those numbers are sending me to bed with a smile on my face.
And yes, I’ve BEEN a member of a gun club with more than 1000 members. One of many here in Texas.
-Aaron
“I would find it rather amusing if the NRA bought the list and sent them a little propaganda to inform them of the futility and illegality of their support for the Brady Campaign.”
I will gladly donate for this purpose and Joe you have an evil, wicked, mean warped mind. I really like that in a person 🙂
Jim
You know, $1.4M is a nice chunk of change. They can milk the stupid of their cash, then claim they can’t really get anything done because the NRA dwarfs them and that the stupid should send them MORE money to counteract that.
Not a bad scam if you can stomach the bigotry I guess.
Funny that we use the Brady Campaign as the umbrella for “anti-gun groups” much like the Bradys use the NRA as their general term. We do so because the Bradys are the largest of the insects and this show how insignificant they really are.
Joe, I think we’re succeeding in branding them as the bigots they are if that’s the best they can come up with. That, and most people just don’t care about gun control beyond a sound bite or two.
Lots of work still needs to be done, and it’s no time to let our guard down, but it’s comforting to know the gun blogs probably have more readers than the Bradys have “members”.
Granted, if I could get $40 per reader, I’d be a happy camper 😉
Robb,
It’s $1.14M, not $1.4M. That is for an entire year. If they are really careful with their money they can support a staff of about 10 low paid people with that. That assumes they don’t do much of anything except answer the phone, make a few blog posts (I’m more prolific than they are), and sent out news releases. Donations to candidates, lawsuits, and legal briefs are pretty much not going to amount to anything.
Maybe a staff of five with a little bit of money to do things with.
Insects. They are nothing but insects in terms of an organization.
So how much does this membership list cost?
Maybe we could send them free ammo samples!
For the entire list the cost is $70/M or $3540.67. You can get subsets of the list selected on gender, zip code, etc. for a slightly higher rate.
It’s all at the link.
At 1.14M, their budget is that of one mom and pop small business in a medium sized town. I imagine there are quite a large number of single owner gun stores with more gross revenue than that.
Re: “I would find it rather amusing if the NRA bought the list and sent them a little propaganda to inform them of the futility and illegality of their support for the Brady Campaign.”
While I find that highly amusing, my Momma taught me to take care around a wounded dog. I wouldn’t want to give any of them a spark in the pants to go out fighting any harder.
My 2 cents