Since the recent shooting in Parkland, Florida in which 17 high school students were killed, many corporations have disconnected themselves from the National Rifle Association (NRA). The weapon used to kill these kids was military-style rifle legally purchased by a 19-year-old previous student of the high school.
In the past, the NRA has advertised that its members could enjoy discounted deals from companies like Avis Budget Group, Delta, United Airlines, MetLife and Wyndham Worldwide. But since the shooting, those companies and several others have announced that they have ended or will soon end their corporate partnerships with the gun group. The student protests all over the nation have been one of the biggest influences regarding the withdrawal of these companies from the NRA.
Delta is ending discounted rates for members of the organizations. United Airlines will no longer offer discounts on flights to the NRA annual meeting. Enterprise Holdings, which runs the Enterprise, Alamo and National car rental groups, will end the discount deal it has with the NRA as well. The Avis Budget Group, which owns Avis and Budget and Hertz, also plans to end its deals.
These companies are cutting ties with the NRA in the hopes of obtaining stricter gun laws and because of disagreements with how the gun rights advocacy group has handled this situation. It is not just the Florida school shooting that citizens are concerned with, but rather all of the past shootings and the easy access to military rifles and assault weapons.
An October 2017 Pew Research Poll found that gun owners were 75 percent more likely to contact elected officials over gun laws than non-owners were. 21 percent of gun owners said they had reached out to lawmakers before, including 9 percent who had in the past year. Just 12 percent of non-gun owners said they had contacted officials about the issue, and only 5 percent said they had done so in the past year.
The National Rifle Association released a statement earlier, saying that “companies have decided to punish NRA membership in a shameful display of political and civic cowardice. In time these brands will be replaced by others who recognize that patriotism and determined commitment to Constitutional freedoms are characteristics of a marketplace thy very much want to serve.”
At this point, businesses that work with the NRA are putting their relationships with customers at risk, according to William Klepper, a professor at the Columbia Business School. He continued to say that “boards and their CEOs are saying, ‘This is bad for business.’”
Gun makers were already suffering from weak sales before the Parkland shooting but since then, there has been a double-digit decline in sales and earnings and has cut over 700 jobs over the last year. Klepper thinks that citizens have started to see corporations as “more reliable responders than government.”
More and more, business leaders are voicing their opinions on gun control through their connections with the NRA.
