Capital One also used its dominance and prominent position in the consumer credit market to shut out firearms companies it did not like. A company legally selling suppressors, a vital hearing protection device for many firearms, quickly discovered it could not get a credit card for its company. Silencer Central CEO Brandon Maddox outline his difficulties in getting a credit card account set up for the business.[1]
“So we opened the SPARK Business credit card under my personal name and my social security number. We were in the process of moving the Capital One SPARK card from my personal name to business name and business EIN [Employer Identification Number] right before my testimony [to the South Dakota Senate] because—after a good deal of back and forth—Capital One agreed that Silencer Central could be classified as a ‘Sporting Goods’ business, and not a firearms manufacturer. But after my testimony before the Senate Committee, where I raised this point and others about banking biases against my company, Capital One had a change of heart. I was advised by Capital One that our business account request had then been denied and I needed to seek a new service for my personal account currently being used for Silencer Central business. … At the time, Silencer Central was processing, on average, $100,000 in daily purchases with the Spark card, paying off the balance every other day.”
Capitol One’s push back was part of a multi-facetted effort to strangle access to capital for firearms related businesses.
[1] https://www.americas1stfreedom.org/content/how-gun-companies-and-stores-are-pushing-back/