Airlines turn backs on NRA

Gun advocacy group labels some corporations ‘cowards’ in statement.

Delta Air Lines and United Airlines on Saturday became the latest major corporations to sever marketing ties with the National Rifle Association (NRA) as the fallout from last week’s massacre at a Florida high school took its toll on the gun advocacy group.

The exodus of corporate names, ranging from a major insurer to car rental brands and a household moving company, began after the NRA launched a counter-offensive against a student-led campaign for tighter US gun laws.

The NRA responded by saying its members were being punished, but would not be intimidated, by what it called “a shameful display of political and civic cowardice” from some corporations.

In tweets on Saturday, Delta and United said they were no longer offering NRA members discounted rates and they would ask the NRA to remove their information from its website.

The issue of gun control, and the NRA’s role in opposing it, became the focus of renewed national debate after a former student killed 17 people on Febuary 14 at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Parkland, using an AR-15 assault rifle he had purchased legally.

NRA spokespeople have lashed out at gun control advocates, arguing that Democratic elites are politicising the deadly rampage in Florida to erode gun owners’ rights.

In a statement on Saturday, the NRA said its more than five million law-abiding members had nothing to do with the failures of school security, the mental health system, or both local and federal law enforcement that it said had caused the tragedy.

“Despite that, some corporations have decided to punish NRA membership in a shameful display of political and civic cowardice,” the statement said. “In time, these brands will be replaced by others who recognise that patriotism and determined commitment to Constitutional freedoms are characteristics of a marketplace they very much want to serve.”