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“I have not seen the risk department, the C-suite, and employers thinking about this issue quite this way before,” Brown said. Shipping company FedEx was among the more vocal holdouts against cutting ties with the NRA, saying at the time that it would never adjust its rates or change its rules based on its customers’ “ politics, beliefs or positions on issues.” But even FedEx eventually caved in October 2018, as many corporations felt compelled to speak on the issue. In 2018, companies from sectors including travel and insurance made a statement by cutting Business Alliance ties with the NRA barely a week after a gunman killed 17 students at a high school in Parkland, Fla.Ĭompanies that had special partnerships with the NRA before Parkland, including Delta Airlines, United Airlines, the First Bank of Omaha, MetLife Insurance, and several car rental agencies, pulled out of their Business Alliance deals amid a firestorm of customer criticism. Backlash led international hotel chains Best Western and Wyndham Group in 2017 to end their programs that granted hotel discounts to NRA members. Two mass shootings in the past 10 years that were similar to the one in Uvalde have spurred many companies to leave the NRA alliance.Īfter a gunman attacked schoolchildren at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, leaving 20 children and six adults dead, companies with close ties to the NRA were called on by customers to pull out of Business Alliance deals. But while the alliance still counts thousands of businesses in its ranks, many have left it in the past. The NRA established its Business Alliance in 1992 to “provide NRA member businesses with a marketplace to sell goods and services to fellow NRA members,” according to the company’s website. Thousands of companies are partnered with the NRA due to the group’s large membership-it claims to have more than 5 million members, even though that number has previously been called into question. The NRA spends around $3 million annually on lobbying, but that does not include funds that are more difficult to track, such as contributions to political action committees and independent donations. Of these pro-gun groups, the NRA is the most powerful and prominent, spending more each year than all other gun advocacy groups combined. Gun advocate groups spent $15.8 million on lobbying last year, a record high, dwarfing the $2.9 million spent by gun control organizations.

The NRA, a major political donor, wields serious political influence. “For a lot of people contemplating working and operating in some of these states, they feel like they should be paid a premium to work there.” “How is anything that they're offering to employees around this issue with respect to reproductive rights different?” Kris Brown, president of gun control advocacy group Brady United, told Fortune.

Wade was leaked in early May, some major companies including Apple and Levi’s publicly promised they would provide their employees with abortion care moving forward, a type of activism that may happen again in states with loose gun laws. Similarly, when a Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v. Disney employees were unhappy about it, compelling the company to publicly oppose Florida’s governor over the bill. In March, the Walt Disney Company initially stayed silent about new Florida legislation that would ban discussions of sexual identity and gender orientation in the classroom.

Tuesday’s elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead is the type of shocking event that could force the business world to take a stand.Ĭompanies today are increasingly expected to weigh in on social issues, and failing to do so can mean severe backlash from customers and employees.