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Airlines Drop NRA Affiliation As Group Responds To Boycott

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NEW YORK (AP/KDKA) - The National Rifle Association says companies that are severing ties with the gun rights group and its members are wrongly punishing them for a shooting at a Florida high school that claimed 17 lives.

In a statement sent Saturday, NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said the group's 5 million members have long enjoyed discounts and benefits from many American corporations.

"Since the tragedy in Parkland, Florida, a number of companies have decided to sever their relationship with the NRA, in an effort to punish our members who are doctors, farmers, law enforcement officers, fire fighters, nurses, shop owners and school teachers that live in every American community," the statement said.

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The group says it had "nothing at all to do with the failure of that school's security preparedness ... or the cruel failures of both federal and local law enforcement."

Both Delta and United Airlines said Saturday they will no longer offer discounted fares to NRA members to attend their annual meetings, and both have asked the gun rights group to remove any references to their companies from the NRA website.

Earlier this week, four rental car agencies -- Alamo, Enterprise, National and Hertz -- dropped their affiliation with the NRA, as did Symantec, MetLife, and the First National Bank of Omaha that was the official credit card of the NRA.

The NRA statement called the moves a "shameful display of political and civic cowardice."

(TM and © Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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