This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, February 28, 2018:
Following the announcement by a few well-known companies that they were “severing” their relationships with the National Rifle Association (NRA), the New York Times wrote positively of the actions. In just the last few days, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, Chubb Limited (insurance), MetLife, and Enterprise Holdings (Enterprise, Alamo, and National car-rental affiliates) have announced they would no longer offer discounts for their various services to NRA members. Also included in the list is First National Bank of Omaha, whose credit card was the official card of the NRA and which offered a $40 cash-back bonus, enough to pay for a membership in the organization.
The Times overstated the impact by calling the decisions a “boycott” of the NRA, adding, “Through an uncoordinated but simpatico collection of Twitter hashtags, retweeted lists, Facebook groups, online petitions and carefully orchestrated campaigns, the protest has pushed a major bank, several car rental companies, two airlines and other businesses to publicly cut ties with the N.R.A.”
Some companies were clearly posturing, such as Dick’s Sporting Goods, which hasn’t sold semi-automatic rifles in any of its 800 stores since the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012. But the president, Ed Stack, saw his opportunity to promote his anti-gun views on ABC News, telling the network that “We’re taking these guns out of all of our stores permanently.” What was missing is that his decision impacts only 35 stores in its Field & Stream chain.
What impact the so-called “boycott” of the NRA is likely to have is highly questionable. By the numbers, those posturing are an infinitesimally small percentage of the business community. A most generous estimate is that fewer than three dozen companies have cut benefits previously being offered to NRA members. But there are 22 million active businesses in the United States, most of whom aren’t joining the parade of naysayers. FedEx, for example, is keeping its discount program in place for NRA members.
But there are other numbers, too,
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