“We have to stand up and fight,” said Georgia’s Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle when he was asked about the state Legislature’s move to kill a $50 million tax break on jet fuel for Delta Air Lines after Delta ended a program offering discounted flights to NRA members.
But a fight for freedom isn’t how the mainstream media outlets want this battle over the Second Amendment in the U.S. Bill of Rights to be understood. CNN, to call out one, tossed up an opinion piece saying, “Do Georgia Republican politicians have amnesia? Why would a slew of them, fearful of the National Rifle Association, seemingly have no problem with voting to take away a $50 million tax break from Delta and risk the possibility that nearly 85,000 jobs sprint across the state line, along with tens of billions of dollars for the local economy?”
The reason is fundamental: Freedom matters.
That this is about freedom just isn’t something the mainstream media wants to honestly affirm, even though America always has been defined by its freedom.
Cagle, after all, knows full well he is censuring an important company in his state. On Tucker Carlson’s show on FOX News earlier this week, he said, “Delta is the largest employer in our state.” And then, a moment later, he repeated the line: “We have to stand up and fight.”
That’s real political courage. And that courage has been matched by Republican candidates in the gubernatorial race.
Delta seems to have realized that it acted hastily. Delta released a statement affirming the company’s support for the Second Amendment and said, “Out of respect for our customers and employees on both sides, Delta has taken this action to refrain from entering this debate and focus on its business.”
Delta clearly panicked when the anti-gun-rights activists’ #BoycottNRA push began. Some other companies have as well. Companies typically stay out of politics, as alienating even a few consumers can affect bottom lines and stock prices. But in this case, they mistook the mainstream media’s almost-one-sided noise for public opinion. Such is how Delta, MetLife and others got on the wrong side of public opinion.
A survey shows this. A Morning Consult survey conducted in late February found that many companies’ favorability ratings plummeted after they cut ties with the NRA.
“Unfavorability ratings for the three major rental car brands associated with Enterprise Holdings Inc.—Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Alamo and National Car Rental—all more than doubled among surveyed adults after they learned about the companies ending discounts for NRA members,” said Morning Consult.
It won’t be surprising for NRA members to learn that this survey also found that most adults view the NRA favorably and most (69 percent) support the Second Amendment.
Blaming the NRA, a 5-million-strong civil-liberties organization, for the actions of a criminal isn’t just nonsensical, but it is an attack on a basic American freedom.
Meanwhile, three prominent retailers—Walmart, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and L.L. Bean—announced they have decided not to sell firearms to legal adults who are younger than 21. This move arguably puts them in violation of anti-discrimination laws, as federal law and many state laws allow citizens 18 or older to purchase long guns. Indeed, a 20-year-old in Oregon already has filed against Dick’s and Walmart, alleging discrimination.
A column in the Boston Globe explored the ramifications of the decision by asking if it would it be OK if “Dick’s, Walmart, and L.L. Bean announced—in the wake, say, of a jihadist terror attack—that they would no longer sell weapons to Muslims?”
Of course it wouldn’t. Discrimination, whether it’s against those who chose to utilize their Second Amendment rights or against an ethnic or religious group, is still discrimination. Just because it’s politically correct, according to some in Hollywood and the media, to discriminate against a certain group doesn’t make it right.
We are all equal under the law and God.
There are other hypocrisies involved in discriminating against NRA members and 18- to 20-year-olds. For example, do we really want to be a nation that allows 18–year-olds to enlist in our armed forces, to be trained to shoot and possibly to fight and even die for our country—and all its freedoms—but then to tell these same people they can’t buy a gun to hunt with or enjoy the shooting sports with at home?
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