USA TODAY International Edition
United, Delta sever NRA ties
Backlash against gun rights group keeps ramping up
Two major airlines — United Airlines and Delta — say they will no longer offer discounted rates for National Rifle Association members, in the latest display of corporate backlash to the pro-gun organization.
United said Saturday that it is canceling its program for discounted rates to the NRA’s annual meeting, while Delta said it was dropping its contract for lower rates through its group travel program.
Both companies said they had asked the NRA to remove these offers from its website.
“United is notifying the NRA that we will no longer offer a discounted rate to their annual meeting and we are asking that the NRA remove our information from their website,” the airline said on Twitter.
The moves, after a mass shooting that left 17 people dead at a high school in Parkland, Fla., follow decisions this past week by rental car companies Hertz, Enterprise and Avis Budget to end their NRA discounts.
The pro-gun lobby has come under sharp criticism, particularly from students who survived the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, for opposing efforts to curb the sale of semiautomatic rifles like the AR-15 used in the shootings.
The NRA defended itself Saturday in a statement, saying that corporations who “decided to punish NRA membership is a shameful display of political and civic cowardice.”
“Let it be absolutely clear. The loss of a discount will neither scare nor distract one single NRA member from our mission to stand and defend the individual freedoms that have always made America the greatest nation in the world.”