Tuesday, February 20, 2018

NYT: Banks, Credit Card Companies Can End ‘Assault Weapon’ Sales by Withholding Finances

In this April 10, 2013 file photo, newly made AR-15 rifles stand in a rack at Stag Arms in New Britain, Conn. The gun manufacturing company pleaded guilty Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2015, in federal court in Hartford, Conn., to violating federal firearms laws. Owner Mark Malkowski has agreed to sell the company. Prosecutors said the company was unable to account for hundreds of weapons. Malkowski is expected to plead guilty Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015, in New Haven federal court to a misdemeanor charge of failure to maintain proper firearm records. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

 Breitbart

On February 19 the New York Times suggested banks can go around Congress on gun control by refusing finances to stores and companies that deal in “assault weapons.”

A similar approach, Operation Choke Point, was used by the Department of Justice during Barack Obama’s second term in office and has been targeted for closure under the Trump administration.

On August 17, 2017, Politico quoted House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlette describing Operation Choke Point as “a misguided initiative.” Goodlette observed, “Law abiding businesses should not be targeted simply for operating in an industry that a particular administration might disfavor.”

But NYT says banks and credit card companies could continue such policies by simply banding together against certain aspects of the firearms industry.

NYT reports: “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 floated this possibility:
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.)
They continued, “If Mastercard were to do the same, assault weapons would be eliminated from virtually every firearms store in America because otherwise the sellers would be cut off from the credit card system.”

The message is clear–if Senators and House Members stand for the Second Amendment instead of gun control, then circumvent those Senators and House Members via a monolithic approach to banking that omits any financial opportunity related to “assault weapons.”

12 comments:

  1. And those same credit card companies can pry the damn card out of my warm fingers because I would cut them up, and cancel my account and tell them to go to hell. Sure, I would pay off my balance as fast as I could so they wouldn't make one more damn penny of profit off of me. I have personally have cut back on my use of them anyway. Fiat banking, fiat credit...

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  2. What a great idea. They should also refuse charges to certain political parties, certain charities, certain foods, certain movies, certain books, etc. It's easy to see where this is going.

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    1. It's easy to see where this is going.

      No where good.

      Delete
  3. That would last about five seconds after every gun owner in America told the banks to "shove it" and cut up their cards. If 100 million people suddenly cut up their plastic, it would castrate the banks more effectively than civil war....and they know that.---Ray

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    1. , it would castrate the banks more effectively than civil war.

      Hopefully.

      Delete
  4. So a Christian baker must make stuff for the whatever community but banks can pick and choose who they like to do business with !
    HYPOCRITES .

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  5. Master Card & Visa have the CC market tied up. The NRA currently has a credit card for its members but it uses the Visa payment platform. What's needed is an independent platform and that'd be very expensive to set up.

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  6. Isn't banning the "assault" weapons Racist? They are Black guns after all!

    Badger

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