After repeatedly using his regular Forbes column to attack gun safety efforts without mentioning that he also writes for the National Rifle Association, Frank Miniter's latest column discloses his ties to the gun group.

In an October 20 column about the relationship between gun laws and law enforcement officers, Miniter added, “Full disclosure: The often politically incorrect truth about guns led me to write the recently published book The Future of the Gun. I'm also a former executive editor of the NRA's magazine American Hunter. I still write for the NRA and for many other publications and am a 'field editor' (an honorary title) for American Hunter.”

Media Matters previously criticized Miniter and Forbes for not disclosing his NRA ties in a September 25 column that claimed the gun safety initiatives undertaken by Everytown for Gun Safety and the group's founder Michael Bloomberg were “backfiring.”

That column followed other instances where Miniter advanced the viewpoints of the NRA without disclosing his ties to the organization.

Miniter's latest column proves the need for the disclosure. In the piece, he cites a discredited survey previously hyped by the NRA in order to create the impression members of law enforcement typically oppose gun safety laws.

Miniter touted several findings of a PoliceOne.com survey that seemed to indicate law enforcement generally supports permissive gun carrying rules, even in an educational setting:

Also, a survey done by PoliceOne.com of 15,000 law-enforcement professionals found that almost 90 percent of officers believe that casualties related to guns would be decreased if armed citizens were present at the onset of an active-shooter incident. More than 80 percent of PoliceOne's respondents support arming schoolteachers and administrators who willingly volunteer to train with firearms. Virtually all the survey's respondents (95 percent) said a federal ban on the manufacture and sale of ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds wouldn't reduce violent crime.

The survey, which was released in April 2013, made headlines at the time after fact checkers noted that the NRA was manipulating one of its findings in an online ad campaign against expanded background checks on gun sales.

In addition to explaining how the NRA distorted figures from the survey, critics (including Media Matters) also pointed to its serious methodological problems. Reached for comment by The Washington Post's fact checker, a representative from PoliceOne.com acknowledged that the survey -- which had no mechanism to determine whether respondents were being truthful about their status as a real law enforcement officer -- “was not scientific by definition.”

Miniter also cited an annual survey from the National Association of Chiefs of Police (NACOP), which also has serious methodological issues:

In 2013, a survey of police officers by the National Association of Chiefs of Police found that 86.8 percent of those surveyed think “any law-abiding citizen [should] be able to purchase a firearm for sport and self-defense.”

Like the PoliceOne.com survey, the methodology is flawed because it represents the responses of a self-selected group; those who have joined NACOP. The organization has also taken positions on gun issues, including opposing the landmark Brady background check bill during the 1990s.