More than a dozen companies have cut ties with the NRA - and pro-gun rights activists are furious

REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Many companies have ended partnerships that brought discounts for members of the National Rifle Association.

• More than a dozen companies have cut ties with the NRA following boycott threats from gun-control activists. 
• Now, people who support the NRA are threatening to boycott the companies that cut ties with the gun-rights organization. 
• Brands like Hertz, United, Delta, and Enterprise Rent-a-Car are being flooded with boycott threats from the right. 

Companies that have cut ties with the National Rifle Association after anti-NRA boycott threats are facing backlash from the right. 

Delta and United Airlines, Hertz, and MetLife are just a few of the more than a dozen companies that have cut ties with the NRA in the last week. The decisions followed a social media boycott campaign targeting companies that offer special deals to NRA members who, as part of their membership, receive discounts on things like car rentals and prescription drugs.

Gun-control activists have celebrated the companies that have cut ties - but not everyone is happy. 

"[S]ome corporations have decided to punish NRA membership in a shameful display of political and civic cowardice," the NRA said in a statement this weekend. "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." 

Many supporters of the NRA vowed to boycott companies that cut ties with the organization, flooding the brands' social media pages with complaints. 

"Since you decided to join politics and drop the NRA, I will no longer do business with you," one person wrote on Delta's Facebook page on Monday. "I just booked a vacation and I made sure not to use your airline. You might want to stick with flying planes and stay out of politics."

"Since you decided to join politics and drop the NRA, I will no longer do business with you. I'll take my business elsewhere," another person wrote on Enterprise Rent-A-Car's Facebook page. 

Hertz

Brands that have cut ties with the NRA are receiving mixed feedback on social media

Scrolling through companies' Facebook pages and Twitter mentions, it is clear that many on the right are just as ready to organize a boycott campaign as the left. The usual complaints about late planes and poor customer service have been replaced by discussion of the NRA - with people both celebrating and slamming the companies' decisions. 

The latest wave of boycotts are just the most recent in a long list of political consumer activism.

Trump's presidency has been marked by polarizing boycotts, from conservatives smashing Keurigs after the company pulled ads from Sean Hannity's show to liberals ditching Macy's for selling Ivanka Trump's fashion brand.

I didn't join the @NRA to get FREE STUFF, I joined because the #NRA fights for our FREEDOM #2A pic.twitter.com/HlYSkpAtHc

- Dr. Kelli Ward (@kelliwardaz) February 25, 2018

I spent 42 years defending this country so companies like @Avis could operate in freedom. That freedom was defended with guns. Yet companies like this and others want to vilify me as a gun owner and as an @NRA member. I risked my life for them and now I'm treated as a vile person

- David (@david_d1421) February 25, 2018

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