US airlines Delta and United on Saturday joined a growing list of more than a dozen companies to cut ties with the National Rifle Association (NRA) in the wake of a deadly school shooting in Florida that has galvanized proponents of gun control, according to dpa. The companies also include car rental giants Hertz, Avis, Alamo and Enterprise, as well as insurance companies MetLife and Chubb, and software company Symantec, which had offered discounts for the NRA's 5 million members. Delta said it was letting the NRA know it would be "ending their contract for discounted rates through our group travel program," while United said it would "no longer offer a discounted rate to their annual meeting." Both asked the NRA to remove their information from its website. Activists in the student-led anti-gun movement Never Again have put pressure on the NRA and politicians in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that left 17 people dead and more than a dozen others injured. The NRA has been blamed for contributing to the delay and deferral of legislative gun control efforts. One of the first institutions to stop special offers for NRA members was the First National Bank of Omaha, which said that following "customer feedback" it would no longer offer an NRA credit card. Other companies that have faced pressure but have yet to make an announcement are delivery company FedEx, as well as media companies Amazon and AppleTV, two of the distributors of the NRA's TV channel via its streaming service. President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Rick Scott, both vocal advocates of the Second Amendment right to bear arms, have ceded to public pressure by pushing for several limited gun control measures including raising the minimum age for buying weapons from 18 to 21. Trump has sided with the NRA on its proposal to arm teachers with concealed weapons to make schools harder targets for potential attackers.
