I will address here only the second issue, because I have no data to answer the first one. I previously expressed a belief that the right to bear arms is more about macho toys than social protest and civil rights. Jordan challneged that opinion. Consequently I decided to test thosed two views empirically.
Currently I do not have data sets that includes variables on gun ownership or NRA membership. However, I do have one that asks the question whether the person thinks it is justifiable to kill in self-defence. Since this is the standard NRA line, I interpret that item as the measurement of agreement or disagreement with teh NRA philosophy.
I divided a representative sample of the US population (N=1,839) into two groups, one that tends to disagree that killing in self-defence is justifiable and the one that tend to agree with that statement. 58% of males tended to agree, as opposed to 47% of females (stat. signif. p <0.01).
Those who agree that killing in self-defence tend to be more distrustuful toward the legal system (10.5% have no confidence at all, as compared to 6.5% of those who disagree, stat. sig. p<0.01) and the police 4% have no nofidence at all, vis a vis 2.9% of those who disagree).
Those who agree with the statement that it is justified to kill in self defence are also more likely to participate in social protest. The table below compares attitudes of thoso who agree and disagree toward various form of social protest.
TABLE 1: WILLINGNESS TO PARTICIPATE IN SOCIAL PROTEST, By ATTITUDE TOWARD KILLING IN SELF-DEFENCE
source: World Values Survey Statement: Killing in self-defence Range of answers: never justified to always justified collapsed to two groups, "agree" and "disagree" percentages may not add to 100 due to rounding all differences significant at p<0.01
SIGN PETITION: have done might do never agree 79% 17% 4% disagree 65% 23% 12%
JOIN BOYCOTT: have done might do never agree 22% 51% 27% disagree 15% 39% 46%
LAWFUL DEMO: have done might do never agree 20% 50% 31% disagree 12% 38% 50%
UNOFFICIAL STRIKE: have done might do never agree 5% 35% 60% disagree 4% 25% 71%
OCCYPY BUILDING: have done might do never agree 2% 20% 77% disagree 1% 14% 85%
These data suggest that people who believe that killing in self-defence are more distrustful toward the state law enforcement apparatus, and are more likely to join various forms of social protest than people who belive that killing in self-defence is not justified.
I do not have the data handy to test a connection between gun ownership and NRA membership and the trust of law enforcement and willingness to participate in social protest. However, I'll try to see what I can find in General Social Survey when I have more time.
However, if belief that it is justified to kill in self defence translates into willingness to acquire a fire arm - then gun ownership tends to be associated with greater willingness to participate in protest.
If anyone needs more info on methodology, pleae contact me privately.
Wojtek