Bank of America is undertaking a review of its relations with “assault weapon” manufacturers.
On February 24 Axios published a statement from Bank of America:
We are joining other companies in our industry to examine what we can do to help end the tragedy of mass shootings, and an immediate step we’re taking is to engage the limited number of clients we have that manufacture assault weapons for non-military use to understand what they can contribute to this shared responsibility.
This statement follows a February 19 New York Times’ column which explained how banks and credit card companies could team up to limit finances for companies manufacturing and/or selling “assault rifles.”
For example, NYT reported that “PayPal, Square, Stripe and Apple Pay announced years ago that they would not allow their services to be used for the sale of firearms.”
They added:
Visa, which published a 71-page paper in 2016 espousing its “corporate responsibility,” could easily change its terms of service to say that it won’t do business with retailers that sell assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and bump stocks, which make semiautomatic rifles fire faster. (Even the National Rifle Association has said it would support tighter restrictions on bump stocks.)
The pressure being placed on financial institutions is subsequent to a PR campaign designed force other companies to cut ties with NRA. On February 24 Breitbart News reported that over a dozen companies have severed relations with the NRA, discontinuing discounts for the NRA’s 5 million members.
Those companies are:
- First National Bank of Omaha
- Enterprise Rent-A-Car
- Symantec
- Metlife
- Delta Airlines
- United
- Best Western
- Alamo Rent a Car
- Avis
- Allied Van Lines
- Budget
- Chubb Insurance
- Hertz
- North American Van Lines
- Paramount Rx
- SimpliSafe
- TrueCar
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.