Press Release For Immediate Release
March 12, 2002
Contacts: Julie Bernstein
Kristin Becker
[email protected] H&R Block Severs Ties with National Rifle Association
Washington, D.C.-[B]In a stunning defeat for the gun lobby, H&R Block, the nation's largest tax preparation firm, today severed a controversial
marketing agreement it had entered into with the National Rifle Association (NRA).[/B] H&R Block's withdrawal from the program came as a result of widespread protests spearheaded by the Alliance for Justice's Gun Industry Watch, and supported by the Million Mom March united with the Brady Campaign and the Mid-Atlantic Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence.
"Let this send a loud message to other corporate partners of the NRA," said Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron. "If you support the NRA, we
will work to make sure that your employees, customers, and all of your stakeholders know that you support an extremist gun lobby that is out of step with mainstream America." * * *
H&R Block had entered into an agreement with a marketing company called Memberdrive to market its products and services to NRA members. However, the agreement also provided for "royalties" paid by H&R Block, through Memberdrive, to the NRA. According an H&R Block advertisement that ran in the March issue of America's First Freedom, the NRA's magazine, H&R Block "will make a contribution to the NRA for every Member who becomes a new customer."
Gun Industry Watch, a student network, first exposed the agreement in late February, staging a protest outside of an H&R Block outlet in Washington, DC, and planning dozens more. Over the past two weeks, thousands of activists including those from the Million Mom March and the Brady Campaign joined with Gun Industry Watch and called, faxed and e-mailed H&R Block to express their objections to this agreement and to educate the company on the extremist positions that the NRA has taken in the past.
With Gun Industry Watch recruiting students, Million Mom March recruiting its members and support from the Mid-Atlantic Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, protests of H&R Block offices in more than 50 cities had been planned for mid-March. These protests have now been called off. * * *
"H&R Block now understands that, by areeing to this royalty scheme, it was furthering the reckless political agenda of the NRA's leadership," said Mr. Barnes. * * *