The Morning Roar: Gun Sellers Targeted By FDIC & Justice Department, FLOTUS Tells Students To Monitor Parents, And OK Bill To Allow Permitted Guns In School Parking Lot Passes
Tuesday's edition of The Morning Roar features a secretive government gun grab, a lecture on race from Michelle Obama, and Oklahoma passage of gun friendly legislation.Gun Sellers Targeted By FDIC and Justice DepartmentIs the banking industry, at the request of the Justice Department, targeting firearm retailers by pressuring banks into cutting off funding? An article in the Washington Times reveals that the Justice Department has launched a credit card fraud probe, which aims to hold banks accountable that lend to fraudulent merchants.
Since 2011, regulators have increased scrutiny on banks’ customers. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in 2011 urged banks to better manage the risks of their merchant customers who employ payment processors, such as PayPal, for credit card transactions. The FDIC listed gun retailers as “high risk” along with porn stores and drug paraphernalia shops. Meanwhile, the Justice Department has launched Operation Choke Point, a credit card fraud probe focusing on banks and payment processors. The threat of enforcement has prompted some banks to cut ties with online gun retailers, even if those companies have valid licenses and good credit histories. “This administration has very clearly told the banking industry which customers they feel represent ‘reputational risk’ to do business with,” said Peter Weinstock, a lawyer at Hunton & Williams LLP. “So financial institutions are reacting to this extraordinary enforcement arsenal by being ultra-conservative in who they do business with: Any companies that engage in any margin of risk as defined by this administration are being dropped.” A Justice Department representative said the agency is conducting several investigations that aim to hold accountable banks “who are knowingly assisting fraudulent merchants who harm consumers.”
Here’s a list of some of the “fraudulent” gun retailers that have been targeted.
• T.R. Liberti, owner and operator of Top Gun Firearms Training & Supply in Miami, has felt the sting firsthand. Last month, his local bank, BankUnited N.A., dumped his online business from its service. An explanatory email from the bank said: “This letter in no way reflects any derogatory reasons for such action on your behalf. But rather one of industry. Unfortunately your company’s line of business is not commensurate with the industries we work with.” • Black Rifle Armory in Henderson, Nevada, had its bank accounts frozen this month as the bank tried to determine whether any of Black Rifle’s online transactions were suspicious. • In 2012, Bank of America suddenly dropped the 12-year account of McMillan Group International, a gun manufacturer in Phoenix, even though the company had a good credit history, the owner said. Gun parts maker American Spirit Arms in Scottsdale, Arizona, received similar treatment by Bank of America, the country’s largest banking institution.
For those of you that are daily readers of The Morning Roar, you’ll remember “Operation Choke Point” was reference in a story a few weeks ago regarding porn stars losing their bank accounts. It was revealed that the program was being used to identify individuals who are exhibiting behavior the government disapproves. Those customers are then “choked off” access to financial services. Repercussions for banks that did not end financial services with customers identified to be risky could potentially face fines or other punitive measures. The story from a few weeks ago of porn stars losing financial services was probably shrugged off by most, because at the time only porn stars and other socially objectionable professions were reported as targets of this probe. Now that the Justice Department probe has been linked to a clandestine attack on the Second Amendment more citizens should pay attention and resistance to this injustice should increase.As fellow contributor to this website Marc Clair described in a previous article about banks targeting porn stars, the actions taken by the banks against customers as a result of “Operation Choke Point” cannot be categorized as private companies freely managing their businesses as they wish. The banks may have the legal right to terminate the financial services of individuals or businesses for whatever reason they desire, but keep in mind these banks are backed by the Federal Reserve. They do not operate in a free market. Banks participate in a system which grants a private banking cartel a monopoly on money creation and grants full control of the financial system to this same group. Banks should not be confused with a legitimate private business. “Operation Choke Point” is a covert attack on our natural rights as human beings to defend our life and property. This debacle is another example why the Federal Reserve needs to be abolished. The federal government and the Federal Reserve (which is a private entity) have the power to use their monopoly on justice and money creation respectively to alter banking functions in order to achieve the agenda they desire. In this case, they desire to put gun retailers out of business, which restricts the distribution of guns to law-abiding citizens.FLOTUS Tells Students To Monitor Parents For ThoughtcrimeMichelle Obama already dictates what school children can and cannot eat by way of her school lunch program, which continues to be an utter failure and generates viral pushback from enraged students. She has decided to take her own personal nanny state initiatives one step further and is now instructing students that they need challenge their older relative, friends, and co-workers when they make racially insensitive comments. The first lady made these remarks during a high school graduation in Topeka, Kansas. The Blaze provides coverage of Michelle Obama's comments which were released over the weekend.
“[O]ur laws may no longer separate us based on our skin color, but nothing in the Constitution says we have to eat together in the lunchroom, or live together in the same neighborhoods,” she said. “There’s no court case against believing in stereotypes or thinking that certain kinds of hateful jokes or comments are funny.” To address these limitations in the law, Obama asked students to take steps to “drag my generation and your grandparents’ generation along with you” in the fight against racism. “Maybe that starts simply in your own family, when grandpa tells that off-colored joke at Thanksgiving, or you’ve got an aunt [that] talks about ‘those people,’” she said. “Well, you can politely inform them that they’re talking about your friends. “Or maybe it’s when you go off to college and you decide to join a sorority or fraternity, and you ask the question, how can we get more diversity in our next pledge class?” she added. “Or maybe it’s years from now, when you’re on the job and you’re the one who asks, do we really have all the voices and viewpoints we need at this table? “But no matter what you do, the point is to never be afraid to talk about these issues, particularly the issue of race,” she said.
It is interesting that Michelle Obama makes these comments, when her husband has presided over an administration that actively seeks to use situations or policies to divide on racial lines. Two examples that come to mind were President Obama’s comparison of Trayvon Martin to his imaginary son and making the arrest of a black Harvard professor by a white cop into a national spectacle. Obama was advertised as a great unifier that would heal a divided nation, but all he has done is use skin color as a political tool to win votes, by spewing racially divisive rhetoric.Oklahoma Bill To Allow Permitted Guns In School Parking Lot PassesOklahoma has passed a bill that makes school zones a little bit less “gun free.” Guns.com has the details.
A bill that would make it legal for concealed carry holders to store handguns inside a locked vehicle in school parking lots passed the Oklahoma House by a 83-6 vote Thursday. Currently it is illegal in the Sooner State to have a firearm on school grounds under threat of a felony offense, so state lawmakers are looking to change that for permitted carriers with House Bill 2614. “I think there’s a lot of people who are unsuspectingly committing a felony,” said state Sen. Greg Treat (R), one of the bill’s sponsors. “I think a lot of people don’t realize that you can’t do that now.” “We are a very pro-Second Amendment state. We’re a very pro-self-defense state. We don’t need to create unnecessary barriers for people to protect themselves,” explained Treat.
As someone who favors restoring the right of self-defense with a firearm in all situations, I support this legislation in Oklahoma. It is a positive incremental step that eases law-abiding citizen’s access to their legally licensed guns. A Republican state Senator made a comment which proves that even Republican lawmakers in a “very pro-Second Amendment state” do not understand the fact that guns make us safer.
“My greatest concern as a school principal was to keep the students safe,” said State Rep. Ann Coody, (R-Lawton), a former principal. “It was not for the convenience of people who visited our campus.”
Quotes like this one reinforce how far we have to go to convince politicians that the best way to protect children is not via State mandated “gun-free zones.” Schools should be left alone to determine the best way to protect the children trusted into their supervision. Read The Morning Roar every weekday Monday-Friday!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!
