As the nation continues to mourn the lives of 17 children and adults killed Feb. 14 by a gunman armed with an AR-15 rifle, companies have started to end business relationships with the NRA.
As the nation continues to mourn the lives of 17 students and staff killed Feb. 14 at a Florida high school by a gunman armed with an AR-15 rifle, companies have started to end business relationships with the National Rifle Assn.
On Friday afternoon, rental car company Hertz tweeted that it had notified the NRA that it would end the organization’s rental car discount program.
We have notified the NRA that we are ending the NRA’s rental car discount program with Hertz.
And then on Saturday morning, Delta shared on social media that it had plans to tell the NRA it would end the gun lobby group’s contract for discounted rates through Delta’s group travel program.
“We will be requesting that the NRA remove our information from their website,” Delta said in a tweet.
Delta is reaching out to the NRA to let them know we will be ending their contract for discounted rates through our group travel program. We will be requesting that the NRA remove our information from their website.
United Airlines followed Delta’s move, saying in a tweet that the company no longer would offer a discounted rate to the NRA’s annual meeting.
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 companies are among a group of corporations ending ties with the NRA after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
The corporate reaction against the NRA has differed from that of past shootings, including the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Conn., that claimed 26 lives and the killing of 58 people in Las Vegas last fall, said Bob Spitzer, a political scientist at the State University of New York in Cortland and a scholar on gun politics. Spitzer said the actions were likely in response to the student mobilization that followed the Florida shooting, but he said it was too soon to tell how significantly the changes 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.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
jaclyn.cosgrove@latimes.com
@jaclyncosgrove
