Symantec Cuts Ties With NRA Amid Backlash Over School Shootings

The firms range from vehicle rental companies such as Hertz to insurance firms like USA corporation MetLife. A home security company.

Several businesses with ties to the National Rifle Association are breaking up with the group amid mounting pressure from gun-control proponents following the Parkland, Fla. school shooting. Links to the company remained on the NRA website on Saturday.

NRA’s convention website stated, “NRA has also contracted special flight discounts with United Airlines and Delta Airlines, specifically for members attending the NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits”.

The Nebraska-based First National Bank of Omaha will not renew its contract to issue the group’s NRA Visa Card, spokesman Kevin Langin said in a statement.

“Customer feedback has caused us to review our relationship with the NRA”, Langin said.

Enterprise – the parent company of car-rental brands Enterprise, Alamo and National – cut ties on Thursday, when it discontinued an arrangement that offered discounts to NRA members.

Auto rental firms Enterprise, Hertz, Avis and Budget are among them, along with the insurance giant MetLife, software firm Symantec, and home security company SimpliSafe.

“Some corporations have made a decision to punish NRA membership in a shameful display of political and civic cowardice” spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said. Names of companies with NRA associations had begun circulating widely Thursday under the hashtag #BoycottNRA.

Corporate lawyers say the NRA could argue for money damages if those companies terminate the long-term contract before the expiration date, but they feel it is unlikely to do so. Hertz, Avis Budget Group and TrueCar would soon join Enterprise and end their NRA discounts.

With so many other companies listening to public outcry, it’s not a long shot to think FedEx might follow suit. On Tuesday, before it ended its relationship with the NRA, a representative of North American called it a “great program” in an interview with ThinkProgress.

“We have asked them to remove our listing from their benefits site”, the spokesperson added.

By Friday, the list of defectors grew to include Symantec Corp, which ended a discount program for its LifeLock identity theft product.

The NRA, which has long used campaign donations and effective lobbying to hold outsized political influence, argues that stricter gun control would erode individual rights. Rather than just following the standard post-mass shooting script, Parkland students are firing back at right-wing conspiracy theorists and forcing ineffectual, NRA-sympathetic senators like Marco Rubio into an embarrassing defensive crouch. Loesch blamed a flawed system for letting people who shouldn’t be able to buy guns slip through the cracks. Like Wyndham, the company took to social media to respond to dozens of messages, saying it “does not have an affiliation with and is not a corporate partner of the National Rifle Association”.

The online furor comes a day after the NRA’s leaders attacked the media and Democrats, claiming the fallout from last week’s Florida high school massacre was being politicised.

The insurance firm Chubb said it had already stopped underwriting an NRA-branded insurance policy as of three months ago.