On Monday, the Daily Signal’s Kelsey Harkness wrote of two more legal gun dealers denied banking services simply because they’re in the firearms business, a legacy of the Obama administration’s Operation Choke Point.
A voicemail from a People’s United Bank officer in Fairfield, Conn., to Rich Sprandel, an 18-year police veteran and owner of Blue Line Firearms & Tactical, denied his application for a line of credit: “They said they no longer lend to firearms dealers.”
On March 11, an exec from the Asheville branch of HomeTrust Bank told Luke Lichterman, owner of Hunting and Defense of Tryon, N.C., “The banking industry is tightly regulated by the federal government and we cannot approve your (payment service) because of the high-risk nature of your business.”
Operation Choke Point was launched to combat money laundering. However, it labeled firearms sales, along with pornography and escort services, as “high risk.” Consequently, it has intimidated risk-averse banks into denying credit to lawful gun businesses.
