Since the Valentine’s Day massacre at a Parkland, Florida high school culminated in 17 lives taken by a mentally- disturbed lone gunman armed with an AR-15, Google searches of “NRA membership” have soared 4,900 percent.
Make no mistake, the National Rifle Association has not been hurt by corporations such as Delta Airlines, United Airlines, Hertz, Alamo and others who have decided to sever ties with the NRA and/or its members. To the contrary. The Google numbers flourished with the unambiguous keyword term “NRA membership.”
Per a report published by Fox 10 Phoenix, “The NRA called the companies’ actions ‘a shameful display of political and civic cowardice’ and the loss of corporate discounts and other perks ‘will neither scare nor distract’ their members.” If Google Trends is accurate and ripe with integrity, then the preceding NRA statement is right on target.
“NRA membership” search term via Google skyrocketed with its “Interest over time” metrics indicating a huge jump just days before the Valentine’s Day school massacre. It didn’t start or stop there. According to the Media Research Center, “Google searches also spiked for ‘How much does it cost to join the NRA?’ and ‘Second Amendment.’ Searches for NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch also rose exponentially following her highly publicized appearance at a CNN town hall on Feb. 21.” Even the week before the massive 4,900 percent spike, Google Trends indicated a large indulgence of NRA subject matter during the first week of February 2018, on the fourth day of the month…ten days prior to the Parkland shooting.
Given those earlier dates, interests in the NRA were not only related to the Parkland shooting, but likely stemming from the ongoing gun-control debate in our nation and the mounting threats to Second Amendment allowances. As to the right to bear arms, gun-rights organizations are not floundering by any stretch. In fact, that coin has plenty of value, despite what oppositionists wish for the majority to believe. The recent spate of major corporations chucking NRA members from the patronage team is not really small potatoes, it’s more like spud skins.
A few reports extrapolated that only 13 NRA members were affected by Delta’s maneuver. But…just think of what it did to Delta’s brand. And they knew of that minuscule number while conceivably taking the grand leap. So, what’s the impetus for that decision while, thereafter, Delta purports to support the Second Amendment?
What I am referring to is Delta Airlines, for example, denying NRA members who fly their air service from special discounted fares for NRA events. Moreover, Delta execs requested the NRA scrub all references of the Delta brand from their sites and print materials. In light of the Delta/NRA breakup over Americans’ freedom to exercise the right to bear arms, I find it ironic that Delta Airlines has “The Spirit of Freedom” clearly printed near the cockpit area on some of its planes. Just a catchy jingle and brand moniker? Confused corporate conscience? Hypocrisy?
As I always told my police trainees: Sometimes some things self-correct. And Delta’s move is one such example, and the list of companies bailing out on the NRA grew. So be it.
There are several other companies with the same reaction and attitude resembling liberalism: reshaping things to suit whims by knee-jerking and pandering to leftists. Hertz rental car company followed in Delta’s shoes. No worries; there are other choices at airports from which to patronize, just not Alamo, National and Enterprise. They are holding hands with Hertz, as if all are blaming the NRA for physically pulling the Parkland trigger.
Pertaining to the corporate muscling messages, an email submitted to TIME Magazine had the following qualification written by former Oklahoma legislator Cleta Mitchell: “There is no one. NO ONE. Who joins the NRA for a discount on a rental car.” Ding-ding, the chips are down and she has a winning hand (statement).
Good riddance, Delta…and good luck. Good-bye, Hertz…and no hurt feelings from me. Choices, choices, choices.
Solid Like Metal
In May 2016, NRA membership was up to five million subscribers. Yet, it had nothing to do with the NRA’s marketing or leadership or publicity; not entirely, anyway. Seems NRA’s intensified interest and recent member-base growth had to do with Second Amendment rights enthusiasts and Americans seeing one of their Constitutional freedoms under attack.
A litmus test for that last theory came to light when other Second Amendment entities such as the National Association for Gun Rights also saw their member-base soar, especially recently.
The burst in pro-gun club memberships also came to the table after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. Gun rights organizations like the NRA and similar entities saw a mass wave of interest as gun-control advocates echoed reeling-in arms.
Even talks of “gun confiscation” is circulating social media and mainstream media. If even a remote possibility, can you imagine how such a monumental undertaking would be carried out? It can’t. It wouldn’t. Forefathers ensured that with a certain document whose value is far beyond a scrawled message on a napkin. The idea is so grandiose that is may even have comedic value. Did I just hear you chuckle? Definitely nothing to see there, so let’s move along.
TIME writer Alana Abramson wrote, “two people familiar with the workings of the NRA, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss membership numbers, said that since the shooting the NRA has also seen more people than usual join, renew memberships or donate money as President Donald Trump and other Republican Party leaders have signaled an openness to gun control policies that are anathema to the powerful group.”
Hypocritical rock-throwing at rights-defending and arms-bearing Americans is nothing new, and the Google-search bloom of information-seeking folks interested in NRA membership bears that out quite distinctly. Lucky for the NRA, members get to read material such as this provided by the analytic engine operated by Google.
Gun Owners of America (GOA) comprises a membership base of 1.5 million folks, and it has also seen hundreds of new members over recent weeks. Like the NRA member-base did after the Sandy Hook school massacre, GOA’s member numbers increased significantly after the Las Vegas shooting in October 2017.
Synonymously, 29,000-member Connecticut Citizens Defense League “which typically gets 15 or 20 applications a week…received almost 200 in the last week,” Abramson reported.
Despite the ostensible threats to the Second Amendment right to bear arms, the numbers tell a different story. I find it apropos to take it home with a conclusion uttered by former lawmaker Mitchell: “You can rest assured that the NRA will not lose a single member as a result of this. If anything, it should spur people to join the NRA as a means of demonstrating that we who believe in the Second Amendment will not be bullied by these left wing multi-billion dollar corporations.” That’s one way to amend the Second Amendment brow-beating by white-collar sorts in safe- space fiefdoms.
Stomp-out the Second Amendment? Delusional! Run it through Google.
