Three of the world’s largest car-rental companies and the largest U.S. privately-owned bank holding company have joined the parade of corporations cutting ties with the National Rifle Association in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting.
The car-rental giants — Enterprise Holdings, Hertz, and Avis Budget Group — all said they will end their corporate sponsorship programs that offered discounts to NRA members following a campaign on social media to boycott businesses with financial ties to the gun rights group.
The 22 companies involved in the NRA’s benefit program include six of the largest car-rental companies. Enterprise Holdings controls the Enterprise, National, and Alamo brands, which make up the top six with Hertz, Avis, and Budget.
“We have notified the NRA that we are ending the NRA’s rental car discount program with Hertz,” the company tweeted on Friday.
By the end of Saturday, more than a dozen of the larger U.S. corporations — representing the travel, software, insurance, banking, and hospitality industries — had all abandoned the NRA.
Among others to sever ties was private bank First National Bank of Omaha, which announced it would discontinue its “NRA Visa Card” that offers NRA members 5% back on gas and sporting-goods purchases.
“Many will applaud the move, but NRA members are famously loyal and the organization has shown itself as being very good at mobilizing its members, so there’s a real possibility of a significant backlash,” Matt Schulz, senior industry analyst at CreditCards.com, told MarketWatch.
“However, banks are in the business of managing risk of all kinds, and First National clearly sees this as one they’re willing to take in the wake of the tragic school shooting in Florida,” he added.
In a statement, the NRA accused the companies that dropped partnerships of “a shameful display of political and civic cowardice.”
“The loss of a discount will neither scare nor distract one single NRA member from our mission to stand and defend the individual freedoms that have always made America the greatest nation in the world,” it said.
