Some States Making JPMorgan Chase Pay for Anti-Gun Discrimination

U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “JPMorgan Chase & Co. was removed on Thursday from a $700 million Louisiana municipal-bond deal after the bank’s stance on guns drew criticism from state Republican officials,” Bloomberg News reports. “The decision came after state Treasurer John Schroder, a Republican, said his team was scrutinizing JPMorgan’s gun policies following Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon’s comments to a Congressional committee earlier this year that his firm won’t finance companies that make military-style weapons for consumers.”

“Louisiana isn’t alone in standing up to discriminatory policies,” the National Shooting Sports Foundation reported in October. “Texas’s legislature passed and Republican Gov. Gregg Abbott signed into law the Firearm Industry Nondiscrimination Act (FIND Act). The law prohibits ‘woke’ corporations from profiting from Texas tax dollars and using those profits to fund efforts to deny those same taxpayers their Second Amendment rights. The law already cost JPMorgan Chase the $3.3 billion it underwrote in bonds in 2020 now that it is denied from doing so this year.”

Similar measures are being pursued in other states, including Ohio, where Rep. Scott Wiggam has introduced legislation that “would deny corporations the ability to benefit from taxpayer-funded state or municipal contracts while at the same time holding policies that discriminate against firearm-related businesses.”

From my 2018 GUNS Magazine “Banking on Disarmament” column:

Unsurprisingly, banks are also beneficiaries of collectivism. Citigroup and B of A both got “government bailouts” courtesy of the taxpayers. Gun owners had no say in prohibiting money taken from them being used to guarantee assets of corporate ingrates. And JPMorgan Chase, ATF’s credit card provider, offered a position to get a double-dipping Fast and Furious manager out of the country, was a top Obama and Hillary campaign contributor, and the bank that terminated the account of “3D printed gun” pioneer Defense Distributed.

With an estimated net worth of around $2B, Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimond is above it all. Naturally, an “Executive Protection Specialist” bodyguard is one of the perks he enjoys, so what the little people who have credit cards, checking, and savings accounts are to do is of no concern to him. There are so many customers, a handful lost here or there will not even register on the bottom line.

As for the argument that the super-rich like Dimond and celebrities need such services more than the average person because they’re such potentially lucrative targets, tell that to the most at-risk low-wage workers among us, like convenience store clerks, or taxi drivers, or the pizza delivery guy.

It’s past time for the government to investigate past “sweetheart deals” such as JPMorgan enjoyed with ATF. If the Republicans can succeed in not blowing a return to majority power, gun owners should demand they hold banks to the same non-discrimination policies as the above-cited states are enacting.

Starting with no more bailing the ungrateful loan sharks out when they run things into the gutter…

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.