US corporates snap ties with gun lobby
US CORPORATIONS TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT TIES WITH THE GUN INDUSTRY
Three more companies said they had ended discount programmes with the National Rifle Association (NRA), as US corporations take a closer look at investments, cobranding deals and other ties to the gun industry after the latest school massacre.
Petitions are circulating online targeting companies that offer discounts to NRA members on its website. (hash)BoycottNRA has trended on Twitter.
Members of the NRA have access to special offers from partner companies on its website, ranging from life insurance to wine clubs. For a second consecutive day, companies listed on the site have cut ties to the group as it aggressively resists calls for stricter gun control in the wake of the mass shooting last week at a Florida high school that left 17 dead.
The insurance company MetLife Inc. discontinued its discount program with the NRA on Friday. The car rental company Hertz and Symantec Corp., the software company that makes Norton Antivirus technology, did the same.
Insurer Chubb Ltd. said it is ending participation in the NRA’s gunowner insurance programme, but it provided notice three months ago. The programme that provided coverage for people involved in gunrelated incidents or accidents had been under scrutiny by regulators over marketing issues.
Those defections arrived a day after car rental company Enterprise Holdings, which also owns Alamo and National, said it was cutting off discounts for NRA members. First National Bank of Omaha, one of the nation’s largest privately held banks, announced that it would not renew a co-branded Visa creditcard with the NRA.
Other companies, including Wyndham Hotels and Best Western hotels, have let social media users know they are no longer affiliated with the NRA, though they did not make clear when the partnerships ended.
The swiftness of the corporate reaction against the NRA has differed from that of past shootings, including the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that claimed 26 lives and the killing of 58 people in Las Vegas last fall, said Bob Spitzer, a political scientist at SUNY Cortland and a scholar on gun politics. Spitzer said the reaction was likely a reaction to the student mobilisation that followed the Florida shooting, but he said it was too soon tell how significantly it will sway the country’s wider gun debate
“If this is as far as it goes, it probably won’t have any measurable effect. If other companies continue to (cut ties) it can start to have an adverse public relations effect,” Spitzer said. “Usually what happens is that the storm passes, and the NRA counts on that.” Spitzer noted that it was not the first time big business has been pulled into the gun debate.
In 2014, Chipotle asked customers not to bring firearms into its stores after gun rights advocates brought military-style rifles into one of its Texas restaurants.
A year earlier, Starbucks Corp. made a similar statement after the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting. Larry Hutcher, an attorney who specialises in commercial law and litigation, said companies are reacting to a perception that public opinion is shifting on gun regulation.
Polls show growing support for gun control measures, including 97 per cent backing for universal background checks in a Quinnipiac University survey released Tuesday. NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said this week at the Conservative Political Action Conference, that those advocating for stricter gun control are exploiting the Florida shooting.
President Donald Trump has aligned himself with the NRA, suggesting some teachers could be armed so that they could fire on any attacker. However, Trump has also called for raising the minimum age for purchasing semi-automatic rifles. —
If other companies continue to (cut ties) it can start to have an adverse public relations effect. Usually what happens is that the storm passes, and the National Rifle Association counts on that. Bob Spitzer A political analyst
Donald Trump US President when we declare our schools to be gun-free zones it just puts our students in far more danger. well-trained teachers and coaches should be the ones carrying guns.