Pulse survivors plan Disney ‘die-in’ protest of Putnam
TALLAHASSEE – Survivors of the mass shootings at Pulse nightclub and Parkland are planning to pressure Walt Disney Co. to withdraw its support of selfdescribed “NRA sellout” Adam Putnam by holding a “die-in” at a Disney property sometime this month.
National Die-In, a group cofounded by Parkland survivors, is in the early stages of organizing the demonstration where protesters lie in a corpse-like pose to emphasize the effect of shooting massacres. The protest would be at a Disney headquarters or Orlando theme park.
“We want to keep doing these protests to show people we aren’t backing down,” Nurah Abd-ulhaqq, a Georgia teen whose cousin was killed by a gunman in 2016 and co-founder of the group, said Wednesday in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel.
National Die-In alluded to its plans on Twitter by posting “Can you guess where we’re going next?” with a “D” in the style of the Disney logo. David Hogg, the Parkland student who has
risen to national prominence, responded with a tweet that said, “it’s D for die in.”
Disney has donated $789,000 to Putnam’s political committee, Florida Grown, since 2015; including $300,000 since Feb. 14, when a gunman killed 17 students and faculty at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, setting off a firestorm of protests calling for greater gun control measures.
Putnam, the state’s agriculture commissioner, is a Republican running for governor this year.
A Disney spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
Student activists have targeted the National Rifle Association for blocking bills to limit magazine capacities and ban assaultstyle weapons. That has extended to companies that support politicians who back the NRA.
Last month, die-in protests at Publix stores throughout the state led the Lakeland-based grocery chain to suspend all political donations. Publix had given $670,000 to Putnam’s committee.
Putnam defended the companies and the support he’s received from them, blaming “politics” for the backlash they’ve received for donating to his political committee.
“The state of Florida is better off because of corporate citizens like Disney and Publix. They employ hundreds of thousands of individuals, they support families, they’re generous to our communities,” Putnam said after a Cabinet meeting Wednesday in Tallahassee. “I hope that for political purposes people don’t try to tear down some of the best corporate citizens not just in Florida but in this country.”
In July 2017, before the Parkland shooting but more than a year after the shooting at Pulse nightclub that left 49 dead and dozens wounded, Putnam labeled himself a “proud #NRAsellout” on Twitter, a declaration that infuriated gun control advocates.
Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse shooting and a vocal gun control activist, posted a video on social media this week urging Disney to ask Putnam to give back the money.
“Disney, your movies and theme parks have come to stand for what the American Dream is all about: hope, happiness and a better future for our children,” Wolf said. “As a gun violence survivor, I am begging you to stop supporting NRA sellouts like Adam Putnam.”
Republican lawmakers largely ignored calls for gun control after Pulse, but after the Parkland shooting, which took place during the middle of a legislative session, student survivors led a storm of vocal protests at the Capitol.
That led to the passage of the first gun control law in at least 20 years in Florida. The law bans bump stocks, which allow a rifle to fire more rapidly, prohibits those under age 21 from buying a rifle and places a three-day waiting period on all gun purchases.
Putnam has criticized the gun control provisions in the bill, and the NRA filed a lawsuit against the law hours after Gov. Rick Scott signed it.
Putnam was already facing calls from Democrats for him to resign and drop his campaign for governor over a lapse at his agency involving background checks of concealed carry permit applicants.
A negligent staffer, who couldn’t log in to the system, failed to follow up on the checks for more than a year, during which time 291 people received permits in error. The permits were later revoked.
Putnam contends the public was not put at risk by the lapse – the permit is not a requirement to buy a gun, just to carry a concealed weapon in public – and defended his response to the situation.
But the mass shooting survivors and gun control activists aren’t giving up.
“If you’re persistent enough, they’re going to have to notice you,” Abdulhaqq said. grohrer@orlando sentinel.com or (850) 222-5564