By
Kate Taylor and Leanna Garfield
- Gun-control activists are organizing boycotts and calling for companies to cut ties with the National Rifle Association.
- The NRA has partnerships with companies that offer members special deals, such as discounts on car rentals or hotel bookings.
- The
car-rental giant Enterprise and the First National Bank of Omaha are
among the companies that have cut since ties with the NRA.
Gun-control activists are organizing boycotts of companies with ties to
the National Rifle Association — and they're already producing results.
People on social media are calling for boycotts of companies
that offer or have offered special deals to NRA members who, as part of
their membership,
receive discounts on things like car rentals and prescription drugs.
While companies such as FedEx and Hertz still offer such discounts, other companies have cut ties.
Here are all the brands that have cut ties with the gun-rights group
after the recent boycotts as well as past efforts by gun-control
activists.
Delta Airlines
On Saturday, the airline
tweeted that it 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
The airline announced on Saturday that it is cutting ties to the NRA.
"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 company tweeted.
Hertz
On Friday, Hertz
tweeted, "We have notified the NRA that we are ending the NRA's rental car discount program with Hertz."
Allied Van Lines
In a statement to Business Insider, an Allied
representative said the moving company is discontinuing its discount
program with the NRA immediately. "We have asked them to remove our
listing from their benefits site," the representative said.
MetLife
MetLife told Business Insider on Friday that it would
discontinue its NRA discounts program. "We value all our customers but
have decided to end our discount program with the NRA," a representative
said in an emailed statement.
SimpliSafe
On Friday, the home-security company SimpliSafe told
Business Insider that it would withdraw from the NRA discount program.
"We have discontinued our existing relationship with the NRA,"
SimpliSafe CEO Chad Laurans said in a statement.
First National Bank of Omaha
On Thursday, the bank said it would not renew a
contract with the NRA that allowed members to receive an NRA-branded
Visa card. "Customer feedback has caused us to review our relationship
with the NRA," the bank said on Twitter in response to a
call for a boycott. Previously, First National Bank offered members of the gun-rights organization an NRA Visa card, which offered a
$40 cash-back bonus.
Paramount Rx
On Friday night, Paramount Rx released the following
statement to BI: "The prescription discount program that is made
available to NRA members is offered through a third-party vendor. We are
working with that vendor to discontinue the program and remove the
offering."
Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Alamo Rent a Car, and National Car Rental
The car-rental giant Enterprise Holdings announced on Thursday that it would end its NRA discount program,
effective March 26.
The three car-rental brands that Enterprise operates — Enterprise
Rent-A-Car, Alamo Rent a Car, and National Car Rental — will stop
offering discounts to NRA members.
A representative did not
respond to Business Insider's follow-up questions about why Enterprise
was ending the program, though the company has been flooded with boycott
threats on social media.
Avis Budget Group and
Hertz, two rivals of Enterprise, still offered NRA discounts as of Friday morning.
Best Western
Best Western has been targeted by boycott efforts because it has offered discounts to NRA members as
recently as 2016. In response, the hotel chain has
tweeted dozens of times that it "does not have an affiliation with and is not a corporate partner of the National Rifle Association."
"Best Western ended any association with the NRA in 2014," a representative said in a statement to Business Insider.
Best Western has been targeted in past NRA boycott efforts.
In 2012, after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the activist group Avaaz
organized a boycott
of Best Western and Wyndham Hotel Group, calling for them to cut ties
with the NRA. At the time, both hotel chains were listed on the
gun-rights group's website as "friends of the NRA" and offered members
discounts at hotels.
Wyndham Hotel Group
While Wyndham Hotel Group previously offered a 10% discount to NRA members, the hotel chain
cut ties with the organization
late last year. In response to boycott threats this week, the Twitter
accounts for Wyndham and its rewards program tweeted dozens of times
that the hotel chain was "no longer affiliated with the NRA."
Republic Bank
"The NRA Prepaid Card program was previously under
review. Upon conclusion of this review, we decided to discontinue the
offering," a representative said in a statement.
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