By Harold Moskowitz

A “blacklist” is a compiled list of “undesirables” to be cut off from a basic necessity. It was once used by Pennsylvania coal mine owners. They compiled and shared lists of “trouble makers” who had been identified as union organizers. Being blacklisted prevented a man from being able to find work. In our time, blacklisting has advanced from unionbusting to the cutting off of credit and to interference in legal commerce.

The financial industry has become an increasing danger to the firearms industry. Allum Bokhari at Breitbart News has investigated financial blacklisting. He has stated that: “Thanks to the encroachment of progressive ideology into the financial industry – including major credit card companies like VISA, Discover, and Mastercard -- it has become a reality.”

Our 21st century economy depends upon access to credit and, in our increasingly cashless society, to be able to have credit card purchase transactions processed. This reality gives the relatively few corporations providing these necessities tremendous power through financial blacklisting. Pressure can be exerted on firearm-related companies to act in certain proscribed ways to avoid being dropped as a financial services customer.

In Spring 2018, First National Bank of Omaha stopped offering the NRA VISA card. Republic Bank ended the NRA VISA Prepaid Card. Bank of America refuses to work with any company producing “military style firearms.” J.P.Morgan Chase limits business with gun companies. CitiBank refuses to service any retailer which sells “high capacity” magazines or sells firearms to adults younger than 21. Bank of America has cut off services to any firearms maker producing or selling military style weapons for civilians. It also requires firearm retailers to perform background checks on customers. None of the firearms sales may be to adults younger than 21. Failure to meet these requirements will result in termination of financial services. It has also hinted at future requirements for gun manufacturing clients which might dictate the types of permissible firearms and which retailers would be allowed to sell those firearms.

One major bank resisted pressure from the New York Times and others to show “corporate responsibility.” In October, 2018, Wells Fargo Bank granted a $40 million line of credit to Sturm, Ruger and Company. According to Bloomberg News, this was in addition to the $431 million in financing that Wells Fargo had already given to gun companies since 2012. In an open letter, the management wrote that “the bank does not believe that the American public wants banks to decide which legal products consumers can and cannot buy.” Wells Fargo should be applauded and rewarded for its “backbone” with our patronage.

Not satisfied with these types of unwarranted interference with legal commerce, the Times in December, 2018 tried to exert pressure on credit card issuers to monitor customers’ firearm-related buying habits and to blacklist gun purchases. It suggested that banks “unwittingly finance mass shootings” by allowing individuals to use their cards for the purchase of firearms. It wants credit card companies to put systems in place to detect firearm purchases and to either decline them at the point of sale or to flag them to see how much money an individual is spending on guns. Their goal is for credit card issuers and card transaction processors to collectively set new rules for the sale of guns. All of this pressure is based upon the Progressive Left’s value of “corporate responsibility.”

Under the “social responsibility” banner, Pay Pal, Square, Stripe, and Apple Pay, already are refusing to allow their services to be used for the sale of firearms. Now, the Times is pressuring the biggest customers of these payment processing companies. Corporations like McDonald’s, Starbucks, Amazon, CVS and others that publicly refer to “social responsibility” are urged to collectively pressure the payment processing companies to end the handling of gun sale transactions. What would stop this type of pressure from eventually extending to restrictions of the purchases of ammunition types, accessories, and even reloading equipment?

The Progressive Liberals, socialists and Marxists among us realize that they cannot impose their dystopian, tyrannical utopia on the nation until the potential for determined, effective armed resistance through the Second Amendment has been rendered impossible. After each incident of multiple homicide perpetrated by mentally disturbed individuals in gun-free zones, they incrementally chip away at the ability of the citizenry to remain armed in a meaningful way.

This article has focused upon financial blacklisting, a “pincer movement” in the Progressive Left’s multi-front war on the Second Amendment. If they succeed, this nation will be at a “tipping point.” Not just commercial entities are potentially endangered by this assault on freedom. Could your personal credit card be terminated in the future by its issuer because of your monitored donations to the NRA or to other groups which credit card companies might view with contempt?

To quote again from Allum Bokhari: “… to be shut off from an entire financial system. That is the terrifying new threat to freedom that Western society must now contend with.”