Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
In recent years, the financial industry has seemingly been at war with the firearm industry. This war has involved banks and other financial institutions severing all ties with various gun companies, not because these companies did anything wrong, illegal, unethical, or against their policies. No, their only crime is being in the wrong business.
To be fair, the war isn’t a very fair fight. The financial industry is massive and globe-spanning. The gun industry, by comparison, is tiny.
And yet, the battles continue.
It’s a slow and steady form of gun control that gradually gains momentum with limited public fanfare: if guns can’t be taken directly from the hands of citizens, the next best target is banks and financial institutions that allow transactions or loans for the industry.
Vining posted a call between himself and the California-based company on YouTube and told Fox News that they are no longer using PayPal for anything, personal or commercial, and that they do not intend to return.
“It is an ongoing fight when it comes to driving anything that is legitimate and related to small arms in the current political climate,” he said.
In April, several Republican senators wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, expressing concern that “several of the nation’s systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs), including Citibank, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and others, continue to use their Market dominance financially discriminate against legal and compliant companies for political reasons, “including” the firearms and ammunition industry. ”
But a big part of this has been political pressure.
Representative Jennifer Wexton, a Democrat from Virginia, quietly introduced the Gun Violence Prevention Act through financial intelligence late last year. This pushes banks and credit card companies to automatically provide transaction data to federal authorities on some firearm purchases with the goal of identifying “suspicious activity,” even though payment networks determine what it is. strange and what is not a worrying precedent.
And an increasing number of state leaders are targeting.
The problem, of course, is these states are trying to impose their will on the rest of the nation by dictating to banks what regulations they need to have in general and not just for residents of their respective states. One of the worst offenders has been New York Governor Andrew Cuomo who has been lodging his own personal jihad against the gun industry.
Now, I don’t think the financial industry is a willing participant. Not universally, anyway. Some are, but some are being used as pawns for anti-gun lawmakers to try a different tactic to interfere with our constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms.
What these lawmakers aren’t counting on is the pendulum swinging back.
You see, these measures were all floated at a time when public opinion was against gun rights. That was post-Parkland, after all, and people were queasy about the Second Amendment. Now, though, we’re post-COVID and post-riots. Public opinion is likely swinging back in the pro-gun direction. When that happens, expect federal regulations to step in and put an end to this kind of nonsense.
And it needs to. If people can’t access guns, then the Second Amendment is damn near meaningless. That can’t be allowed to happen.
Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger and lifetime shooter. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia. He's also the host of Unloaded TV on YouTube. https://bearingarms.com/author/tomknighton/
https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2020/07/23/banks-continue-war-gun-industry/