'Bad business': Apple, Google, Amazon pressured to cut ties with NRA - 24th February 2018

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An online campaign using the Twitter hashtag #StopNRAmazon has also begun to pick up steam, applying pressure on Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to drop the channel. Photo: AP

Some of the biggest names in corporate America are coming under mounting pressure to cut ties with the National Rifle Association as gun safety activists on Friday intensified calls for a boycott in the wake of last week's Florida high school massacre.

The social media-fueled campaign has already led a range of corporations, from a major insurer to three car rental brands, to sever their relationships with the gun rights advocacy group. Amazon.com Inc and other online streaming platforms are facing demands to drop the online video channel NRATV, featuring programming produced by the group.

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, founded after the December 2012 school shooting in Connecticut that killed 20 first-graders, sent letters to Apple, AT&T , Amazon, Alphabet's Google division and Roku on Friday, asking them to drop NRATV from their products. None of the streaming companies could immediately be reached for comment on the letters.

"We have been just disgusted by NRATV since its beginning," Shannon Watts, the group's founder, said in a phone interview. "It really propagates dangerous misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric. It tries to pit Americans against one another, all in an attempt to further their agenda of selling guns."

The US Constitution's Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms, and the NRA argues that stricter gun control would erode individual rights. The NRA has not commented on companies cutting ties.

With the issue of gun ownership rights versus gun control long dividing Americans, the NRA is an influential political force with its donations to the election campaigns of both Republicans and Democrats.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, returned there on February 14 and killed 17 people, mostly students, with a legally purchased AR-15 rifle, according to authorities.

The latest company to distance itself from the NRA was insurer Chubb Ltd, which on Friday said it would stop underwriting a NRA-branded insurance policy for gun owners that covers legal costs in self-defense shootings.

Symantec Corp said on Friday it ended a program with the NRA offering discounts for its LifeLock identity theft product.

About 22 corporations nationwide offer incentives to NRA members, according to ThinkProgress.com, a news site owned by the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

The hashtag #BoycottNRA was the top trending topic on Twitter on Friday morning. The campaign is the latest effort by activists to deploy social media and use economic pressure to force change.

Similar drives helped convince Fox News to terminate television host Bill O'Reilly, after sponsors dropped his show in the wake of sexual harassment allegations, and the National Football League bowed to improve its handling of domestic violence accusations against players.

David Hogg, one of the student survivors of last week's attack who launched the #NeverAgain anti-gun violence movement, said the students would target any company with ties to the NRA, in addition to lawmakers who accept donations.

Florida Governor Rick Scott, who has been endorsed by the NRA, announced a proposal on Friday to increase restrictions on buying guns and to strengthen school safety measures.

Shares of gun makers were broadly lower on Friday.

Late on Thursday, three rental car brands owned by Enterprise Holdings Inc said they were shuttering discount programs for NRA members. First National Bank of Omaha also said it would not renew a contract with the organisation to issue an NRA-branded Visa card.

Major companies such as FedEx, which offers up to a 26 per cent discount for NRA Business Alliance members, and Hertz, which offers NRA members up to 25 per cent off on car rentals, did not respond to requests for comment on whether they would cut ties with the organization.

'Bad business'
NRATV, which describes itself as "America's Most Patriotic Team on a Mission to Take Back The Truth," features programming that leans heavily on speeches by NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre and spokeswoman Dana Loesch.

Among its series is "Empower the People," in which "rape survivor and Second Amendment advocate Kimberly Corban" participates in "advance training" in firearms, and Curator's Corner," which shows off antique guns.

An online campaign using the Twitter hashtag #StopNRAmazon has also begun to pick up steam, applying pressure on Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to drop the channel. Many of those tweeting are in the entertainment industry.

"Ironic how the @NRA likes to point a finger at what kids watch on TV ... while they spew vile rhetoric on NRAtv, streamed on @Amazon and aimed solely at boosting gun sales," wrote screenwriter Randi Mayem Singer.

Moms Demand Action posted an online petition using the hashtag #DumpNRATV.

"To be affiliated with them, whether you are a company or a lawmaker, it is not going to pay off in the long run," said the Moms Demand Action founder Watts, signaling the start of a broader campaign. "Doing business with the NRA is clearly bad business."

Angry student survivors of the shooting have confronted politicians from state lawmakers to U.S. President Donald Trump himself, demanding stricter gun control laws.

In response, the NRA and Trump have suggested arming teachers who have received training to deter attackers, a proposal that has been met with skepticism by teachers unions and gun violence experts.

(Reuters)