Explore The NRA Universe Of Websites

APPEARS IN News

Ocasio-Cortez Joins Effort to Pressure Banks into Adopting the Far Left’s Anti-gun Agenda

Friday, March 29, 2019

Ocasio-Cortez Joins Effort to Pressure Banks into Adopting the Far Left’s Anti-gun Agenda

The battle over politics in the financial marketplace continues to intensify. The combatants include anti-gun politicians who insist that banks have a social responsibility to sign onto the far left’s political agenda. Opposing them are patriotic Americans of all stripes who believe that federally chartered banks should serve the law-abiding public without ideological or political discrimination.

At stake for gun owners is whether the industries that provide firearms, ammunition, and related accessories to the civilian market will be able to participate in the 21st Century economy.    

It’s becoming increasingly clear what the world would look like if the most dedicated opponents of the NRA and pro-gun politicians had free reign to implement their vengeful and discriminatory agenda against their political enemies.

They do not want a fair and open policy debate. They do not want to have to defend their own objectives.

There is, in their minds, no legitimate opposition to them, so any tactic is on the table to get what they want.

This includes the thinly-veiled extortion of wielding government influence and the virtual outrage mob against anyone who will not bow to their demands.

If you don’t believe us, just ask “Socialist Democrat” and media darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

The freshman congresswoman is proving a quick study when it comes to the extra-legal use of her official position and considerable celebrity to promote political goals that have failed to advance through the lawmaking process.

We recently reported on how Ocasio-Cortez’s fellow gun control advocate Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) used a congressional oversight hearing to berate a bank executive, not for actually breaking the law, but simply for refusing to follow the example of other banks in refusing business with law-abiding gun sellers. Maloney insinuated the bank was somehow complicit in mass murder and explicitly accused it of “putting profits over people.”

Never one to avoid the media spotlight, Ocasio-Cortez took up that refrain last week by taking several national banks to task on Twitter for helping to finance lawful projects or industries that she finds distasteful, including “fossil fuel pipelines,” “private prisons,” and businesses involved with “assault rifles.”

Ocasio-Cortez, like Maloney, sits on the House Financial Services Committee, which is involved in banking oversight. Perhaps just as relevant, in what passes for the modern marketplace of ideas, she has nearly 4 million Twitter followers, many with seemingly endless time and energy to execute whatever happens to be the social justice directive of the moment.

Ocasio-Cortez elaborated on what she was hoping to accomplish in statements to Politico. "There's more than one way to skin a cat, and not everything has to be done through legislation explicitly," she said. “We can also use the tools that we have here to pressure change in other ways as well."

That includes the implicit threat of telling regulated entities they are now on the Official Naughty List for not toeing the political line and unleashing activist hordes to bombard their social media feeds with defamatory accusations or to perhaps take more drastic action in the real world.

Fortunately, not everyone on Capitol Hill has adopted the scorched earth outlook of Maloney and Ocasio-Cortez, and some are actively trying to ensure that America’s business and banking sectors are not completely subsumed into Washington, D.C.’s increasingly toxic political battles.

As we reported last week, Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and John Kennedy (R-LA) introduced S. 821 the Freedom Financing Act, a bill to prohibit discrimination against the firearms industry in the provision of financial services.

This week, Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, sent a series of letters this week to the presidents and chief executive officers of America’s biggest national banks. Those letters expressed concern with the increasing politicization of banking services.

“Large banks, which receive significant forms of government support and benefits, should continue to provide credit and services to customers and companies that comply with federal and state law and should not seek to replace legislators and policymakers,” Chairman Crapo wrote. “Business lending decisions should be based on creditworthiness, rather than politics and political pressure.”

Chairman Crapo’s letter also referenced the Politico article quoting Ocasio-Cortez on “pressur[ing] change” outside the lawmaking process as an example of this disturbing trend.

The Obama administration pursued similar tactics under Operation Choke Point (OCP), with federal regulators leaning on banks to drop relationships with gun sellers and other lawful but disfavored businesses who were portrayed as a “reputational risk” to the institutions’ financial soundness.

But those objectives were hotly denied by the administration and dismissed as a “conspiracy theory” by its media surrogates.

Yet now they are being openly promoted and celebrated by those on the far left, which pursues the same style of government corruption, but without the self-awareness to engage in any pretense of hiding it.

Ocasio-Cortez would apparently be only too happy to tell you that OCP was A-OK.

For now, fortunately, these anti-gunners’ worst ambitions are still kept somewhat in check by the division of political power in Washington, D.C.

Should that situation change, lawful firearms businesses and other targets of the far left’s wrath won’t just be fighting overreaching legislation and bad publicity from a complicit press.

They’ll be facing their exclusion from modern society altogether. 

 

 

 

TRENDING NOW
Undercover Video: Sen. Fetterman (D-Pa.) staffer claims boss would be “okay with like overturning the Second Amendment”

News  

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Undercover Video: Sen. Fetterman (D-Pa.) staffer claims boss would be “okay with like overturning the Second Amendment”

It seems as though Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) may like to overturn more than just the U.S. Senate’s standards of professional attire. According to an undercover video of Fetterman senate staffer Luke Borwegen, obtained by O’Keefe Media Group, ...

Need a Good Lawyer? Don’t Use Anti-Gun Groups as a Resource

News  

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Need a Good Lawyer? Don’t Use Anti-Gun Groups as a Resource

The anti-gun extremists at Giffords and March for Our Lives are running a joint operation to try to convince students in law school to sign a pledge to never represent anyone within “the gun industry or gun ...

Hypothesis or Hyperbole Gun Control Researchers Balk at Betting on Gun Control

News  

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Hypothesis or Hyperbole Gun Control Researchers Balk at Betting on Gun Control

Dr. John Lott, Jr., a leading researcher and founder of the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), recently embarked on an unusual personal experiment: how many pro-gun control academics would literally bet in favor of their own ...

Updates to ATF Final Rule on Stabilizing Braces

News  

Monday, January 30, 2023

Updates to ATF Final Rule on Stabilizing Braces

On Monday, January 30, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives’ (ATF) published the final Factoring Criteria for Firearms with Attached “Stabilizing Braces” rule for public inspection in the federal register.

Report: Biden Administration Weaponizes DHS “Anti-Terrorism” Program Against Political Opponents

News  

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Report: Biden Administration Weaponizes DHS “Anti-Terrorism” Program Against Political Opponents

Those paying attention to official D.C. already know that Joe Biden’s political strategy involves portraying his political rivals, as not just wrong on policy or facts but as altogether illegitimate.

Connecticut:  Gun Control Bill Passes the House and Moves to the Senate

Saturday, May 27, 2023

Connecticut: Gun Control Bill Passes the House and Moves to the Senate

On Thursday, the House passed HB 6667 on a vote of 96-51.  This drastic gun control legislation has a bit of everything.  It contains a ban on open carry and strengthens prohibitions and registration of semi-auto "assault ...

Pennsylvania:  House Democrat Majority Passes Gun Control by Slimmest of Margins

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Pennsylvania: House Democrat Majority Passes Gun Control by Slimmest of Margins

The House Democrat Majority leadership carried through on one of their agenda items late Monday afternoon – attacking law-abiding gun owners.  There are only a couple of sticking points for the gun-grabbers leading the Pennsylvania House.  ...

U.S. House Judiciary Committee Advances Pistol Brace Resolution

News  

Monday, April 24, 2023

U.S. House Judiciary Committee Advances Pistol Brace Resolution

On April 19, the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted 23-15 to advance H.J.Res.44, which would reign in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ attempt to regulate pistol stabilizing braces. The resolution employs ...

California: Six Anti-Gun Bills Pass Chamber of Origin, Others Still Eligible for Votes

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

California: Six Anti-Gun Bills Pass Chamber of Origin, Others Still Eligible for Votes

Last week, the Assembly and Senate both held floor votes and passed three anti-gun bills each. In addition, other anti-gun bills in the Assembly are still eligible for floor votes ahead of the June 2nd deadline ...

The Disingenuous “Assault Weapons” Ban

News  

Monday, May 8, 2023

The Disingenuous “Assault Weapons” Ban

On April 25, 2023, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed HB1240 into law. The legislation is a sweeping, and flagrantly unconstitutional ban on commonly-owned semi-automatic firearms. The law prohibits a host of rifles by name, including America’s ...

MORE TRENDING +
LESS TRENDING -

More Like This From Around The NRA

NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.