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The great guns debate: Fighting back
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By Tribune-Review
Published: Sunday, January 13, 2013, 8:53 p.m.
Updated: Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Bank of America apparently doesn't like dealing with firearms makers. So should individuals and businesses that cherish Second Amendment rights do their banking elsewhere?
In late December, Joe Sirochman, owner of American Spirit Arms in Scottsdale, Ariz., says he wrote on the company's official Facebook page that after a 500-percent surge in online business, Bank of America decided to hold its resulting e-commerce deposits for further review. For three weeks.
He wrote that after many hours on the phone, a Bank of America manager told him: “We believe you should not be selling guns and parts on the Internet.” Angered, Mr. Sirochman replied that the company is properly licensed and law-abiding and the bank has no right to “make up their own new rules and regs.”
Bank of America didn't respond to our request for comment. But it did tell The Huffington Post that the deposit freeze was a review done routinely for “(a)ny spike in transaction volumes ... .”
The website reports that “Bank of America has said in the past that it doesn't have a policy against working with gun businesses” — but that's hard to take on face value, considering the bank faced similar accusations last spring, in relation to firearms maker McMillan Group International.
Sirochman retrieved most of American Spirit's deposits and now is dealing with another bank. Whether he ran afoul of Bank of America policy or one rogue manger, gun-rights supporters should realize they are not unarmed in what's becoming a pitched battle.
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A wonderful example of Americans voting with their 'feet' -or their cash!
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