Pressure on banks to rethink relationships with gun makers

By Daniel Terrill

The public and political forces that influenced businesses and investors to reconsider their relationships with the firearm industry have turned their attention to banks. The shift follows a successful campaign to encourage commercial entities to adopt gun rules lawmakers have failed to turn into policy and also pressured them to break ties to lobbying groups that block gun control legislation.
In the weeks since last month’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida, a handful of investment firms said they would provide greater transparency for clients by identifying financial products funding gun companies and dozens of businesses ended partnerships with the National Rifle Association because of its stance on gun control. But after nibbling around the edges, advocates started biting into key sources of financing for both gun makers and the NRA with the hopes of weakening the industry’s influence over lawmakers and in turn open up opportunities to pass gun control legislation.
Left-leaning news website ThinkProgress initiated efforts to exert pressure on businesses connected to the NRA — crossing out 24 of the 32 companies on their list — and then refocused energies on banks. In all, the website named more than a dozen banks servicing the gun industry. Only a handful of

Source: Guns.com