Petitions call on Apple, Amazon to ditch NRA TV channel

Multiple online petitions are calling on Apple, Amazon and other streaming services to cut ties with the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) television channel.

Petitions from organizations such as Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America have been launched following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., which took the lives of 17 people. 

“NRATV is home to the NRA’s most dangerous and violence-inciting propaganda,” Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts said in a statement to accompany the petition, according to HuffPost.

{mosads}“It’s time for tech leaders to acknowledge their role in helping the NRA spread this dangerous content and cut it out,” she continued. 

The friend of a father of one of the shooting survivors also launched a separate petition on change.org calling for Amazon to no longer offer the channel. 

“The NRA has long ignored its role in promoting gun violence and betrayed the names of good and responsible gun owners,” Brad Chase said on the petition’s webpage. 

NRA TV includes channels such as NRA News, NRA Women, NRA Country and NRA Hunting. 

The NRA said the service is “your source for the most comprehensive coverage of the Second Amendment and firearms related issues.”

Dana Loesch, a spokeswoman for the organization, is a host on the channel and is frequently seen in various NRA advertisements. She has been in the spotlight representing the organization after the shooting and made headlines last week when she said, “Many in [the] legacy media love mass shootings.” 

The calls come as companies have moved to distance themselves from the NRA following the shooting. 

Delta, United Airlines, First National Bank and Hertz are just some of the companies that have cut ties with the organization since the Parkland shooting.

The NRA said in a statement the companies have “decided to punish NRA membership in a shameful display of political and civic cowardice.”

“In time, these brands will be replaced by others who recognize that patriotism and determined commitment to Constitutional freedoms are characteristics of a marketplace they very much want to serve,” the NRA said.

“Let it be absolutely clear. The loss of a discount will neither scare nor distract one single NRA member from our mission to stand and defend the individual freedoms that have always made America the greatest nation in the world.”