Exercising the Right
Standing Up to Anti-gun Big Banks
The enemies of the Second Amendment are starting to realize that their anti-gun actions have major consequences. The American Banker reported on August 17 about how Republican politicians in Louisiana creatively decided to take a stand for the Second Amendment. The Louisiana state bond commission voted on August 16 to ban both Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. from being involved in the state’s upcoming debt sale. The politicians who voted to exclude the banks cited their reasoning being that both banks’ “restrictive gun policies” are a violation of Americans’ Second Amendment rights. As this column previously reported, the two financial giants took the side of anti-gunners in the wake of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting and undemocratically enacted anti-gun policies that had previously stalled through the political process. Louisiana State Treasurer John Schroder released a statement condemning the banks and explained why he supported prohibiting them from the bidding process: “I personally believe the policies of these banks are an infringement on the rights of Louisiana citizens. As a veteran and former member of law enforcement, I take the Second Amendment very seriously…. We have a very capable group of underwriters, including some of the biggest banks in America who want to participate in this deal…. No one can convince me that keeping these two banks in this competitive process is worth giving up our rights.”
Of course Democrats in the state cried foul over the Republicans trying to politicize the debt-bidding process, yet these same politicians didn’t make any such complaints when the banks unnecessarily stuck their noses into the gun-control debate. Citigroup spokesman Scott Helfman similarly complained, “It is disappointing that the taxpayers of Louisiana will be deprived from competitive bidding for necessary public works because the process has been politicized.” Isn’t it funny how when those on the Left take action to further their agenda, it is something to be applauded, but if anyone on the Right tries to fight back, it is denounced as “politicization?”
The Louisiana state bond commission is bidding out the underwriting of $600 million in the sale of bonds but has multiple applicants already involved. Data compiled by Bloomberg showed that both Bank of America and Citigroup underwrote about $110 billion of municipal bonds in 2017, so Louisiana’s bonds would only be a small percentage of their business. But maybe this is just the beginning of a growing political backlash where states and municipalities that are run by pro-Second Amendment politicians may now take similar actions.
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