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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday February 25 2018, @01:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the vox-populi dept.

We had submissions from three Soylentils with different takes on the NRA (National Rifle Association) and the public response in the wake of an attack at a Parkland, Florida high school.

Public Outcry Convinces National Companies to Cut Ties with NRA

Common Dreams reports:

In the latest sign that the aftermath of the Parkland, Florida tragedy may be playing out differently than the fallout from other mass shootings, several national companies have cut ties with the National Rifle Association (NRA).

[Car rental companies] Alamo, Enterprise, and National--all owned by Enterprise Holdings--announced late on [February 22] that they would end discounts for the NRA's five million members. Symantec, the security software giant that owns Lifelock and Norton, ended its discount program on Friday as well.

The First National Bank of Omaha also said it would stop issuing its NRA-branded Visa credit cards, emblazoned with the group's logo and called "the Official Credit Card of the NRA". The institution is the largest privately-held bank in the U.S., with locations in Nebraska, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, and South Dakota.

Additional coverage on TheHill, MarketWatch, Independent and Politico.

The NRA Just Awarded FCC Chair Ajit Pai With a Gun for His 'Courage'

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai joined the pack at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday alongside fellow Republican commissioners Michael O'Rielly and Brendan Carr—the architects of the recent order repealing net neutrality protections passed in the Obama era.

Upon taking the stage, it was announced that Pai was receiving an award from the National Rifle Association: a handmade Kentucky long gun and plaque known as the "Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award."

https://gizmodo.com/the-nra-just-awarded-fcc-chair-ajit-pai-with-a-gun-for-1823273450

These Companies are Sticking by the NRA

Fallout continues from the mass murder in Florida. The National Rifle Association is taking it up the wazoo. A national boycott is emerging. If you are old enough, you will remember that this is what brought down Apartheid in South Africa.

From the Huffington Post:

In what may be a pivotal moment for American gun law reform, the National Rifle Association has become the object of intense pushback from anti-gun activists and survivors of last week's mass shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 dead.

All the attention prompted the gun-rights group to break from its usual strategy of keeping quiet after mass gun deaths. NRA officials have gone on the attack to rail against the "politicization" of a tragedy, and going so far as to suggest that members of the media "love mass shootings" because of the ratings they supposedly bring.

The uproar has once again presented companies affiliated with the NRA, and its powerful pro-gun lobby, with a question: to cut ties, or to continue a relationship with a large but controversial group?

The NRA partners with dozens of businesses to spread its pro-gun message and provide discounts to its members, who number 5 million, according to the group. But this week, some companies have begun to jump ship.

Facing pressure from consumers, the First National Bank of Omaha said Thursday it would stop issuing NRA-branded Visa credit cards after its contract with the group expires. Enterprise Holdings, which operates the rental car brands Enterprise, National and Alamo, says it will end its discount program for NRA members next month, along with Avis and Budget. Hertz is out, too.


Original Submissions: #1, #2, and #3.

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 25 2018, @11:14PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 25 2018, @11:14PM (#643630)

    ...and the shark is riding a tsunami:
    Car buying service TrueCar ends its relationship with the NRA [thinkprogress.org]
    Two national moving companies cut ties with NRA [thinkprogress.org]
    Telemedicine company Teladoc confirms it's no longer in partnership with the NRA [thinkprogress.org]
    Home security company SimpliSafe cuts ties with the NRA [thinkprogress.org]
    Airlines: Delta and United abruptly reverse course; sever contracts with the NRA [thinkprogress.org]

    .
    There's also this:
    Already 5 Potential Parkland Shooter Copycats' Weapons Caches Have Been Seized Since the Shooting [alternet.org]

    • A Whittier, California, school resource deputy heard a 17-year-old student say that "the school will be shot up in three weeks." When sheriffs raided the teen's home, they found 90 high-capacity magazines, two handguns, and two semiautomatic AR-15s.
    • An 18-year-old Clarksburg, Maryland, high school student brought a knife and a loaded 9mm handgun [go.com] to school. When police raided his home, they found an AR-15, several other weapons, along with a list he'd made of his issues with school.
    • During an investigation into a 17-year-old student's threats to shoot up a Manistee County, Michigan, high school, sheriffs found an AR-15 in the young man's home.
    • After an 18-year-old former student made threats against a Fair Haven, Vermont, high school, police discovered that he had purchased a shotgun and ammunition, and had been recently released from a Maine mental health facility.
    • Riverdale County, Nevada, sheriffs arrested a 27-year-old man who had threatened to kill students at Norco College. They located one loaded AR-15; two handguns, also loaded; and 510 rounds of ammunition.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Monday February 26 2018, @06:39AM (2 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday February 26 2018, @06:39AM (#643794) Journal
    in other words, we already had the tools to prevent this shooting. Once again, people are demanding additional, authoritarian solutions to solved problems.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Monday February 26 2018, @07:08AM (1 child)

      by bob_super (1357) on Monday February 26 2018, @07:08AM (#643806)

      Solved ?
      How does "18th school shooting of the year" match the word "solved" ?

      People know that any asshole can kill 3 or 4 people with a kitchen knife. But that it takes a certain kind of person to do that.
      Spraying bullets all over the place? That's easy. Any guy with a grudge and no hope can do that.
      Some weapons are too dangerous to be freely available to anyone with cash and a clean background (or not clean, at gun shows, or not cash, if stolen).

      The people should have normal hunting rifles, and the military with the nasty weapons should be beholden to the people, because they are the people. That's how other advanced countries do it, and maybe it's time we learn (not holding my breath).

      In the meantime, there has been over 300 school shootings in the last 5 or 6 years. There are 130000 schools in the US.
      The odds of a schooting [sic, like the typo] happening at your children or grandchildren's school are astronomically higher than the lottery odds. Wanna keep playing?

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by khallow on Monday February 26 2018, @08:12AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday February 26 2018, @08:12AM (#643821) Journal

        How does "18th school shooting of the year" match the word "solved" ?

        You do realize there has only been one mass shooting so far this year? That number, "18" [washingtonpost.com] includes accidental discharges, suicides, and a bit of gang activity, some which didn't actually happen at a school during operating hours and some which didn't actually cause any damage.

        It is a horrifying statistic. And it is wrong.

        Everytown has long inflated its total by including incidents of gunfire that are not really school shootings. Take, for example, what it counted as the year’s first: On the afternoon of Jan. 3, a 31-year-old man who had parked outside a Michigan elementary school called police to say he was armed and suicidal. Several hours later, he killed himself. The school, however, had been closed for seven months. There were no teachers. There were no students.

        Also listed on the organization’s site is an incident from Jan. 20, when at 1 a.m. a man was shot at a sorority event on the campus of Wake Forest University. A week later, as a basketball game was being played at a Michigan high school, someone fired several rounds from a gun in the parking lot. No one was injured, and it was past 8 p.m., well after classes had ended for the day, but Everytown still labeled it a school shooting.

        Everytown explains on its website that it defines a school shooting as “any time a firearm discharges a live round inside a school building or on a school campus or grounds.”

        Sarah Tofte, Everytown’s research director, calls the definition “crystal clear,” noting that “every time a gun is discharged on school grounds it shatters the sense of safety” for students, parents and the community.

        [...]

        Just five of Everytown’s 18 school shootings listed for 2018 happened during school hours and resulted in any physical injury. Three others appeared to be intentional shootings but did not hurt anyone. Two more involved guns — one carried by a school police officer and the other by a licensed peace officer who ran a college club — that were unintentionally fired and, again, led to no injuries. At least seven of Everytown’s 18 shootings took place outside normal school hours.

        It's time to stop using dishonest statistics. With this crap, you can't understand the problem much less solve it.