NRA-linked firms hit by consumer boycott: Florida shooting

More than half a dozen US companies have cut ties with the National Rifle Association (NRA) as consumers urge a boycott of businesses linked to the politically powerful gun lobby.

The firms included car rental giants Hertz and Enterprise, which offered discounts for NRA members.

The moves follow NRA leader Wayne LaPierre’s speech defending gun rights.

They were the NRA’s first public comments since a deadly school shooting in Florida.

Mr LaPierre said “opportunists” were using the 14 February tragedy, in which 17 people were killed, to expand gun control and abolish US gun rights.

In other developments:

• President Trump said an armed officer stationed at the school who did not enter the building where the shooting was taking place was a “coward”
• CNN reports that in addition to the armed officer, three Broward County deputies were waiting outside the school doing nothing to confront the shooter when Coral Springs police arrived
• Florida Governor Rick Scott, a gun lobby supporter, urged state lawmakers to restrict access to firearms for young people and the mentally ill.

Activists have tried to put pressure on the NRA since the shooting by targeting firms that offer discounts and other benefits to its members.

They have flooded its corporate partners with comments on social media under the hashtag #BoycottNRA. Firms under pressure include delivery company FedEx and tech giants such as Amazon, which distributes NRA television programmes.

Customer feedback has caused us to review our relationship with the NRA. As a result, First National Bank of Omaha will not renew its contract with the National Rifle Association to issue the NRA Visa Card.

— First National Bank (@FNBOmaha) February 22, 2018

Enterprise Holdings, which owns the rental car brands Alamo, Enterprise and National, also said discounts offered to NRA members would end on 26 March.

The firm, which announced the move in response to comments on Twitter, declined to say why it had taken such a step but told a customer that the firm doesn’t “sponsor, endorse or take a political stance on any organizations.”