Credit card giant Visa’s affiliate program helps organizations market financial products to their members. But should Visa allow a lobby that fights every attempt to keep guns out of dangerous hands adopt its brand in pursuit of profit?
Purchases made with the National Rifle Association (NRA) Visa Card help fund “legislative action in support of…Second Amendment rights.” That means that Visa is helping to pay for NRA lobbyists who advocateagainst common-sense policies like background checks on gun buyers, and for dangerous legislation that would force K-12 schools, colleges, places of worship and businesses to allow the carrying of loaded guns on their premises.
On their website,1 Visa talks about “the importance of supporting the local communities and neighborhoods in which we all live and work.” But their credit card program is undermining this goal by funding lobbyists who are making our streets more dangerous.
Not only is the NRA’s agenda a threat to our safety, their leaders are politically extreme zealots who should be toxic to any company concerned about its public image. Visa’s brand and money are supporting an organization whose board members threaten violence against our elected officials,2 engage in racist rants about “the black problem,”3 compare homosexuality to polygamy and incest,4 and declare, “If a guy can’t rape his wife…who’s he gonna rape?”5
A Fortune 500 company should not be helping to promote and pay for an extreme, pro-gun agenda that is causing untold suffering in neighborhoods across America.
Tell Visa: Stop funding the NRA with your affiliate card program.
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Sort of a typical example of special interest groups trying to affect corporate policy.
ReplyDeleteNow why would a financial institution not want to make money, especially on a legal and good product?
ReplyDeleteHow many NRA cards have been sold/issued?
ReplyDelete