One of the most prominent and problematic offenders in the anti-second amendment movement on Wall Street is the Bank of America (BOA). BOA has accumulated a long history of using its heft to attack the law-abiding citizens owning firearms and the companies manufacturing those weapons.
2018 Blacklist
As early at 2018 Bank of America was adopting policies debanking firearms manufacturers. The leading shooting sports foundation in the country outlined BOA’s plans to target the firearms manufacturing industry.[1]
“The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Director of Government Relations, Darren LaSorte, … outlined a disturbing trend where some major financial companies are, by policy, unwilling to provide services to firearms-related companies. Bank of America, he said, declared in 2018 it was adopting a policy of not doing business with any company associated with modern sporting rifles (or nearly every firearms maker in America).”
In April of 2018 BOA confirmed its blacklist, announcing,[2]
“Bank of America will stop lending money to gun manufacturers that make military-inspired firearms for civilian use, such as the AR-15-style rifles that have been used in multiple mass shootings, a company executive said. The policy is the latest example of Wall Street wading into the divisive gun control debate after Citigroup’s announcement last month that it would require business customers to restrict certain types of firearms sales.”
The Vice Chairwoman of the bank doubled down saying, “We want to contribute in any way we can to reduce these mass shootings.” Reporting noted that Anne M. Finucane, vice chairwoman at the Bank of America, told Bloomberg TV the bank works with ‘just a handful of manufacturers,’ with whom it has had ‘intense conversations over the last few months,’ Ms. Finucane said. Their reactions to the new policy have been ‘mixed,’ she said.”[3]
BOA’s targeting of black rifles (generally the definition of “military inspired” rifles) had a knock-on effect attracting other financial services companies to the fight against firearms manufacturers.[4]
“That same year, Citigroup said it wouldn’t provide services to retailers that legally sold firearms to people ages 18-20 or sold standard capacity magazines. J.P. Morgan later adopted Bank of America’s policies, while PayPal went as far as saying makers of gunpowder were non gratis.”
BOA’s behavior did not escape the attention of lawmakers though:[5]
“In Texas, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs have been sidelined from the municipal bond market due to laws passed last year barring firms that ‘boycott’ energy companies or ‘discriminate’ against the firearms industry from doing new business with the state.”
Despite Texas’ push back against BOA and other banks, by cutting off their access to the Texas bond market, reporting indicates that BOA continues to debank lawful firearms manufacturers. In May 2023, Ruger indicated they were still in BOA’s cross hairs:[6]
“Christopher Killoy said in Ruger’s first-quarter earnings news release that ‘we have been notified twice in the past five years by two of the nation’s largest banks, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, that they would not provide us with any credit because of the lawful products that we design, manufacture and sell.”
Intuit Scandal
In addition to using their own heft in the marketplace, BOA was pressuring its business partners to cut off access to banking services for firearms related companies. In 2023 Senator Cruz’s office became aware of anti-firearm policies from the manufacturer of the popular accounting software Quickbooks, Intuit. In a letter to Ituit, Sen. Cruz wrote, ‘My office became aware of these discriminatory policies when Dawson Precision, a Texas company that manufactures small firearm parts, informed my office that Intuit had, without warning, canceled its subscription to QuickBooks payroll services.’ ‘Dawson Precision only discovered what had happened after it submitted payroll…Intuit later said that it canceled Dawson Precision’s account because, as a firearm manufacturer, it was in violation of Intuit’s acceptable use policy,’ Cruz added.”[7]
Cruz’s oversight revealed that Intuit had adopted an acceptable use policy previously listing ‘Guns And Firearm Manufacturing’ as one of the business types prohibited from using payroll services. Intuit also listed ‘firearms and weapons sales’ as a business type prohibited from using payment processing services.
Intuit relented though lifting its prohibitions on payroll and payment processing for gun manufacturers and firearm sellers Aug. 1, following Cruz’s investigation of the company.[8]
[1] Ken Perrottefor, Op-Ed, “Hunting Community Must Respond To Restrictive Legislative Efforts,” The Free LanceStar [Fredericksburg, VA], 12/30/21
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/10/business/bank-of-america-guns.html
[3] Ibid
[4] Ibid
[5] How Republican-Led States Are Targeting Wall Street With ‘Anti-Woke’ Laws,” Newstex Blogs International Business Times News, 7/6/22
[6] https://journalnow.com/news/local/business/ruger-ceo-criticizes-banks-reluctance-to-lend-to-firearms-makers/article_975c6894-ea85-11ed-8596-83054fd2afa2.html
[7] https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/intuit-reverses-decision-to-ban-gun-companies-from-using-services
[8] https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/09/26/jpmorgan-admits-pressured-intuit-cutting-gun-companies/