While other companies connected with the National Rifle Association (NRA) fled after gun control advocates rallied behind the #BoycottNRA movement, FedEx doubled down on its refusal to bow to the boycott Tuesday.
“FedEx is aware there are some continuing concerns related to the NRA, and we want to provide important, clarifying facts,” the company said in a statement Tuesday.
“First, the pricing program that is the focus of these concerns is not for the NRA itself — it is for American small businesses and consumers that are members of the association,” the company continued. “FedEx has never provided any donation or sponsorship to the NRA, which is one of hundreds of alliance and association participants that serve more than 1 million customers.”
But multiple companies have succumbed to the boycott and severed their NRA ties, including Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Avis and Budget car rentals, MetLife, Hertz, Best Western, and the First National Bank of Omaha.
After a gunman killed 17 students and teachers at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, gun control advocates compiled lists of companies that offered discounts to NRA members or shared other business connections and incentives.
After releasing a statement Monday insisting that it “does not and will not deny service or discriminate against any legal entity regardless of their policy positions or political views,” FedEx released a second statement Tuesday clarifying its position without backing down.
FedEx said that it “remains committed to all our customers” and will continue to provide them with its services “independent of their political affiliations and views.”
Pro-gun control websites like ThinkProgress are maintaining lists of the companies still doing business with the NRA or offering its members discounts, along with lists of the companies that caved into pressure and cut all ties with the NRA.
In a statement Saturday, the NRA insisted it would not bow to pressure from gun control advocates amid heightened calls for boycotts, saying that the boycotters are attempting to “punish” the NRA’s more than 5 million members in a “shameful display of political and civic cowardice.”
“In time, these brands will be replaced by others who recognize that patriotism and determined commitment to constitutional freedoms are characteristics of a marketplace they very much want to serve,” the NRA said in its statement.
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“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,” the NRA statement continued.
But social media users and activists ramped up the pressure on companies like FedEx, Apple and Amazon to cut all ties with the NRA. Apple and Amazon allow their users to stream NRA TV on their platforms.
PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.
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