It really is happening: The survivors of last week’s Parkland, Fla., school shooting are shredding the NRA and its paid-for politicians, while jolting their anti-gun elders out of our “nothing will ever change” mindset.
On a CNN Wednesday, the high-school students exposed Florida Senator Marco Rubio for the hired help that he is, then faced down squirrel-obsessed NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch. By the next day, big brands that offered deals to NRA members were responding to calls for boycotts by ending those relationships. More businesses cut the cord today. Ex-NRA partners now include First National Bank of Omaha; all the big car-rental companies; and cybersecurity firm Symantec. Businesses that are apparently waiting until they look even worse include Delta …
UPDATE: Delta defends contract with NRA, describes it as "routine" https://t.co/W12MFP2QEV
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 24, 2018
… FedEx …
Hey @FedEx why do you support the NRA?
— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) February 23, 2018
… and Amazon, which hosts NRA TV. William LeGate made it extra easy for Twitter users to contact Amazon, so if you’re on Twitter, take a couple of seconds (literally) to message Amazon right now.
Contact Amazon support in <2 seconds to show your disapproval of them hosting NRA TV using this special link below. #BoycottNRA
I'm not joking—all you have to do it click it. I did all the hard work for you:https://t.co/2atkHG80dl.
— William LeGate (@williamlegate) February 23, 2018
This is the turning point, peeps. It’s all about money in this country. Besides the businesses stepping away from the GOP, big Florida donor Al Hoffman Jr. is cutting his spending in protest. We need a few more of him. Meanwhile, let’s tease Rubio with some checks he can’t cash.
I’m excited to take my business away from Citibank for non-NRA reasons. Working on it!
Get your friends to do it too! Thanks, Stacy …
Stacy personalized her note.
… and Victoria.
Good job!
The “Thoughts and Prayers” check is one of the three ridiculously easy protest actions I mentioned in my blog post on Tuesday. Once you do all three and send Amazon a DM, I have some recommended reading for people who are struggling to keep up with all the aspects of this fast-changing story:
- A radiologist who saw Parkland victims describes how the mass murderer’s weapon of choice — the AR-15 assault rifle — is much more lethal than other types of guns.
- A veteran who has been shot tells you why arming teachers as the NRA and Trump suggest isn’t a solution for school shootings.
- The myth of the good guy with a gun, by a gun owner, and how actual good guys with guns reacted — or didn’t — during the Parkland shooting.
- Mother Jones reports on the fuckery that is the rest of the NRA’s school defense plan, such as getting rid of trees and windows.
- An Indivisible Twitter thread on local gun lobbying.
- What happened when a well-trained cop brought his gun to school earlier this month.
- ProPublica reports on how the NRA undermined Congress’s last gun-control effort.
- No court has ever ruled that assault weapons are protected under the Second Amendment.
- Administrators in some school districts have threatened to suspend protesting students, and colleges aren’t impressed … with the administrators.
- Finally, for some recommended watching rather than reading, this short video features Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors discussing the way that the Parkland student protestors have galvanized the nation while black victims and protestors of gun violence are demonized. (Don’t forget, the NRA had nothing to say when school employee and licensed gun-owner Philando Castile was shot.) True and heart-breaking.