Pre-Midterm Voting With Your Wallet

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

Continuing in the wake of the Parkland, FL school shooting, survivors and their supporters are leaning heavily on federal and state government to change gun laws. They are also pushing businesses to choose a side to stand on.

Business and politics, by archaic common wisdom, are not supposed to mix. The things you aren’t supposed to discuss in polite or professional company are complex and fraught with emotion: religion and politics. Our parents, grandparents, teachers–they have all told us to avoid these discussions entirely.

Hold onto your hats, folks. We have six living generations sharing this country. The five previous differentiate deeply from this new generation that has yet to find an ’official’ name (most common current placeholder: Generation Z.)

via ReGenerations.org

The thing about the so-called ‘youth’ vote (which presently contains Generation Z and their immediate predecessors, the Millennials) is that they vastly outnumber other voting cohorts in potential. Millennials alone outnumber their parents, the Baby Boomers… but the Boomers vote in much larger numbers. It has been difficult to get Millennials to the polls—a misstep that one may hope will not be the case with the angry, politically charged Gen Z.

via yvoteca.org

Reactions to reactions! As the Parkland survivors become national spokespeople for their generation, businesses keeping an eye on their bottom lines and once-and-future sales (and, perhaps, with a touch of morality) are turning away from the gun lobby. Specifically, they are turning on the NRA.

Major businesses have three choices: decide to boycott, decide not to boycott, or decide not to decide. That third option is increasingly nonviable—major retailers like Amazon are trying to keep quiet on the subject while keeping NRA TV rolling. Soon, the online retail giant is going to have to choose another major hub, and while Atlanta was on the shortlist, Georgia has proven itself hostile to the First Amendment rights of corporations.

via Twitter

That’s right! States too have entered the fray. After Delta dumped discounts for NRA members, Governor Casey Cagle decided to take punitive action against the airline headquartered in Georgia to the tune of $38B. Governors of other states reacted gleefully, offering their states as new HQs for Delta and the over 30,000 job that come with it.

More businesses will take one side or another as the days go by. Kroger, the parent company to Colorado’s King Soopers, has announced they’re ceasing sales of guns and ammunition to people under 21. Wal-Mart has taken a similar stance. Both are drawing the ire of NRA supporters.

Without further ado, here is a current list of major companies and businesses boycotting the NRA and/or assault-style rifle sales:

 

 

 

 

 

This is a necessarily limited list, given that innumerable small businesses make their own political decisions with little to no input or notice from the public. For instance, here in Littleton we have an extremely outspoken company in Penzey’s Spices—check out their Facebook posts from owner Bill Penzey.

Here’s a list of companies and businesses openly supporting the NRA:

LifeLine Screening

ManageUrID 

Life Insurance Central 

Medical Concierge Network  

EHealth 

HotelPlanner.com 

Vinesse Wines (this company has recently suspended its NRA Collector’s Series, but has maintained an NRA member discount so far–it’s being “looked into.”)

There is a social upheaval afoot—and the future leadership of the country is leading the charge and neither giving nor taking quarter. Eventually, every business, every politician, every citizen is going to have to answer: which side are you on?