In the wake of a swarm of mass gun violence incidents, highlighted by the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, thousands of Salesforce employees are urging their company to sever ties with the National Rifle Association (NRA). More than 4,000 Salesforce team members have signed an open letter directed at co-Chief Executive Officers Marc Benioff and Bret Taylor (along with other leaders), hoping to drop the NRA as a client. The controversial gun lobbying group uses the San Francisco-based company’s services for marketing and fundraising.
The open letter to Salesforce leadership calls the commercial relationship with the NRA “unconscionable,” echoing a less-explicit call for gun control by CEO Benioff. The outspoken executive previously advocated in 2018 for a ban on AR-15-style assault weapons and has called for companies to stand for their corporate values. The letter from his company’s workforce seems to be intended to keep Benioff true to his own rhetoric at a time when some organizations have struggled to respond to the urgent issue of widespread gun violence.
As of June 12, there have been 19,473 deaths as a result of gun violence in the United States so far this year, along with 261 mass shootings and 738 children under the age of 18 killed.
