NRA blasts corporations cutting business ties in 'a shameful display of political and civic cowardice'

• The National Rifle Association on Saturday lashed out at the companies who have severed business ties after gun-control activists called for a boycott.
• The movement comes after a mass shooting at a Florida high school that killed 17 people.
• A number of companies have announced in recent days they'll stop offering special deals and discounts to NRA members, including major airlines and hotel chains.
• The NRA slammed the boycotts as "a shameful display of political and civic cowardice."

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The National Rifle Association on Saturday fired back at the growing list of companies that have severed business ties with the gun lobby group in recent days following a mass shooting in Florida.

Gun-control activists and shooting survivors launched an aggressive boycott campaign against the NRA, urging companies to stop offering special deals and discounts to NRA members.

A number of companies have responded to the call, including Delta Airlines, United Airlines, Hertz, MetLife, Enterprise Holdings, and Avis and Budget.

In its statement on Saturday, the NRA called the boycotts an effort to "punish NRA membership in a shameful display of political and civic cowardice."

"Let it be absolutely clear," the statement continued. "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 massacre at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School left 17 people dead on Valentine's Day. The alleged gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, used an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle which shooting survivors have pushed lawmakers to ban.

But the NRA has firmly opposed any sort of ban on semiautomatic weapons, including a popular proposal to raise the age of purchase to 21 from 18, which even President Donald Trump said he supports.

The NRA said in its statement on Saturday that the group had "nothing at all to do with the failure of that school's security preparedness, the failure of America's mental health system, the failure of the National Instant Check System or the cruel failures of both federal and local law enforcement."

The group was referring to the multiple instances in which the local sheriff's department and the FBI neglected to investigate tips about Cruz's violent outbursts and threats to commit school shootings.