The newest battlefield in many gun-controllers efforts to crack down on firearms isn't taking place in city councils, state legislatures, or the U.S. Congress. Instead they've decided to bully banks to cutting off firearms manufacturers.
Federal Government Bullies with Operation Choke Point
The tactic of using financial institutions to attack legal, even constitutionally protected, businesses began under the Obama administration with Operation Choke Point.
The Obama Department of Justice, under the leadership of Eric Holder, along with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), started threatening financial institutions of possible criminal prosecutions if they didn't cut ties with legal, but disfavored businesses. In addition to firearms manufacturers, targeted businesses included payday lenders, pawn shops, tobacco shops, dating services and "adult" businesses.
Choke Point consisted of bureaucrats in several independent federal agencies taking it upon themselves to shut legal businesses – such as payday lenders and firearms dealers – out of the banking system. Given the nature of the U.S. regulatory framework, this operation was easy to pull off.
Officials at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), for instance, simply had to inform the banks they were overseeing that the government considered certain types of their customers “high risk.” The mere implication of a threat was enough to pressure banks into closing accounts, because no U.S. bank wants anything to do with extra audits or investigations from their regulator, much less additional operating restrictions or civil and criminal charges.
Banks are incredibly sensitive to any type of pressure from federal regulators, and they know that the regulators have enormous discretion. The new revelations are quite scary because they show exactly what federal regulators can do with that discretion – even to law-abiding citizens.
Under Trump, Operation Choke Point has been shutdown, but the government officials who, for a time, acted more like mob enforcers are still at their jobs.
The small-dollar lending industry has long known that government bureaucrats with a partisan agenda were determined to bring the industry to its knees, but this illegal campaign went farther than anyone could have imagined — with those at the very highest levels of the Department of Justice, FDIC and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency targeting customers of regulated banks based on their personal bias.
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Those involved in Operation Choke Point demonstrated a blatant disregard for the rule of law and due process, as well as the U.S. regulatory system, and the effect of their actions will resonate for years to come. All Americans should demand answers and corrective action, including the immediate removal of all those involved from their current positions….
Now gun-control groups are trying to bully banks
Today, The New York Times reports on Igor Volsky's Guns Down America group's efforts to shame banks into not doing business with businesses in the firearms industry.
The group, Guns Down America, which formed in 2016 after a mass shooting in Orlando, Fla., has created a ranking system that gives 15 banks letter grades based primarily on their ties to firearms makers and trade groups like the National Rifle Association.
Six of the banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, received failing grades. Citigroup earned the highest one, a B.
Gun owners should make it a point of doing business with the "F" grades.
“We’re not interested in shaming banks or running a campaign focused on how evil they are,” Mr. Volsky said. “Our end goal is to change the way banks make decisions when doing business with the gun industry.”
The group used a 100-point scale that applied different weights to factors like a bank’s loans to and investments in gun makers; its public statements about gun safety; its support for lawmakers backed by the N.R.A.; and the discounts and deals it offers to N.R.A. members.
Here at RestrictedArms.com, we're not interested in helping law-abiding Americans purchase firearms, or letting them know about efforts to curtail their 2nd Amendment rights.
Oops, my mistake. Yes we are.
When Volsky says he's not about shaming banks, that's a lie. That's the sole purpose of his grading system.
While it's not as exciting as large-capacity magazines flooding into California or a potential pro-2nd Amendment decision coming out of the Supreme Court, this is an issue that really matters.
Without access to the banks, the lines of credit, the credit-card processing and even just a simple bank account, firearms manufacturers can't continue to innovate, manufacture and sell their products. Access to the financial system is the lifeblood of any business in 21st Century America.
Volsky's effort to bully banks to isolate the firearms industry is a disgusting effort to achieve via the media what he cannot via the legislature or the courts.
