Econ 3330 loves Gander Mountain

Gander Mountain and guns seem to be a reoccurring subject in our class recently. After talking about Olson, Becker and interest groups, it occurred to me… how does the NRA get members to join?

According to this article, the NRA claims to have about 4.5 million members. We learned in class that Olson favors smaller groups because there is a free rider problem for larger groups. When a group gets larger, the individual contribution of the next member decreases, so people start free riding the benefits without incurring any costs. On the other hand, Becker would contradict Olson and argue that NRA is powerful because of their large membership base. With more people, there are more resources for the group to use and the free rider problem is mitigated.

The NRA has an annual membership fee of $35. That means the group gets roughly 150 million dollars a year for their collective goods (safety programs, gun advocacy, lobbying against gun restrictions, etc.), which upholds Becker's theory. However, Olson does explain that large groups like the NRA exist because the NRA is organized to promote firearm competency, safety, and ownership (lobbying is a byproduct), which lessens the free rider problem and their members enjoy selective incentives. Examples of positive selective incentives from joining the NRA would be discounts on restaurants, attorney referral services, and insurance. Negative incentives: exclusion from private shooting clubs because public shooting locations are rare. So join today!