David Moon: Banks miss target on guns

David Moon (Photo: Amy Burgess) A number of banks, including international behemoths Bank of America and Citigroup, have stopped providing certain services to a number of firearm-related businesses. Credit card companies are exploring ways to identify gun purchases within their payment systems, possibly a first step toward limiting such sales. One of the country’s largest online payment gateways, Authorize.net, has already ended its relationship with the country’s largest single gun store, Hyatt Guns in Charlotte. If you need a bank on the other side of the debate to either patronize or boycott, Wells Fargo CFO John Shrewsberry recently said that the government, not banks, should set gun policy. It has not instituted any restrictions on gun companies. Voting its conscience I like it when a business votes its conscience. My firm avoids doing business with certain professional service providers because of their business practices. My private boycott isn’t going to change anything, however, nor will banks’ restrictions of services to certain gun-related companies. The difference, however, is that the banks’ efforts are completely for show. Their bans amount to little more than virtue-signaling, a low-cost PR move masquerading as a corporate social conscience. It will only damage a handful of small companies, without having any real influence on the quantity, types or use of guns in the country. Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel Bank of America says that in an effort to help reduce mass shootings, it will no longer loan money to manufacturers of “military-style weapons.” Strangely, however, it will […]

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