FDIC’s “Operation Choke Point” and firearms sellers

Posted on Tuesday, May 20, 2014 by BZ

FDIC’s new view: let’s simply choke them out. Like a nice arm-bar or carotid choke.

‘High risk’ label from feds puts gun sellers in banks’ crosshairs, hurts business

Obama plan pressures financial institutions

by Kelly Riddell

Gun retailers say the Obama administration is trying to put them out of business with regulations and investigations that bypass Congress and choke off their lines of credit, freeze their assets and prohibit online sales.

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.

And why would that be, ladies and gentlemen? Paul Harvey said this, here, about armed vs unarmed societies. If you are intelligent you realize who Paul Harvey was. If you are a Millennial you are not and couldn’t care less about your freedoms as long as you can Tweet and clasp an iPad.

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.”

This is federal GovSpeak for “let us eliminate firearms retailers, and those who are injured vicariously are simply fodder for the greater good.”

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.”

Translated: banks who loan to those frowned-upon by the federal government will themselves be held under more constant and critical scrutiny by said federal government.

This is, again, the federal government purposely choosing which private businesses will succeed and which private businesses will fail. Via banks and loans and the FDIC.

How about some specific examples?

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.

“This seems to be happening with greater frequency and to many more dealers,” said Joe Sirochman, owner of American Spirit Arms. “At first, it was the bigger guys — gun parts manufacturers or high-profile retailers. Now the smaller mom-and-pop shops are being choked out, and they need their cash to buy inventory. Freezing their assets will put them out of business.”

But of course it is only business and has no foundation in the type of business involved nor is it sourced from DC.

And HERE is the paragraph that reveals all:

However, the American Banking Association, the industry’s advocacy group in Washington, said businesses deemed “risky” will be frozen out of the financial system if the Justice Department continues Operation Choke Point because the regulatory burden and risk of investigation will be too great for less-specialized banks to bear.

There you go. A “way around” to trump all way-arounds. And bankers respond:

“We’re being threatened with a regulatory regime that attempts to foist on us the obligation to monitor all types of transactions,” Richard Riese, a senior vice president at the American Bankers Association, said in the April 28 issue of American Banker. “All of this is predicated on a notion that the banks are a choke point for all businesses.”

To a point never addressed before, until the Obama Administration. And that never addressed by Leftists “in the tank” for Mr Obama.

In an interview with The Times, Mr. Riese said the cost of doing business with gun retailers outweighs the benefits for some banks, given that regulators deem the industry as “risky,” state laws vary on the sale of guns and ammunition, and the Justice Department’s enforcement.

The Independent Community Bankers of America, an association for small banks, said enforcement actions from the Justice Department are too broad and overly aggressive.

Are any of you surprised that this stems from the Obama Administration — the most strident opponent of the Second Amendment in history?

And here is the point — that I apparently have to emphasize — again and again:

Commentary by Paul Harvey:

     
     "Are you considering backing gun control laws???"
     
     Do you think that because you may not own a gun, the
     rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment don't
     matter?
     
     CONSIDER THIS...
     In 1929 the Soviet Union established gun control.
     - From 1929 to 1953, approximately 20 million
     dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded
     up and exterminated.
     
     In 1911, Turkey established gun control.
     - From 1915-1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to
     defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
     
     Germany established gun control in 1938.
     - From 1939 to 1945, 13 million Jews, gypsies,
     homosexuals, the mentally ill, and others, who were
     unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
     exterminated.
     
     China established gun control in 1935.
     - From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents,
     unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
     exterminated.
     
     Guatemala established gun control in 1964.
     - From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to
     defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
     
     Uganda established gun control in 1970.
     - From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to
     defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
     
     Cambodia established gun control in 1956.
     - From 1975 to 1977, one million "educated" people,
     unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
     exterminated.
     
     That places total victims who lost their lives because
     of gun control at approximately 56 million in the last
     century.
     
     Since we should learn from the mistakes of history,
     the next time someone talks in favor of gun control,
     find out which group of citizens they wish to have
     exterminated.
     
     It has now been 12 months since gun owners in
     Australia were forced to surrender 640,381 personal
     firearms to be destroyed, a program costing the
     government more than $500 million dollars.
     - The results Australia-wide; Homicides are up 3.2%,
     Assaults are up 8 %, and Armed robberies are up 44%.
     In that country's state of Victoria, homicides with
     firearms are up 300%.
     
     Over the previous 25 years, figures show a steady
     decrease in armed robberies and Australian politicians
     are on the spot and at a loss to explain how no
     improvement in "safety" has been observed after such
     monumental effort and expense was successfully
     expended in "ridding society of guns."
     
     It's time to state it plainly; Guns in the hands of
     honest citizens save lives and property and, yes,
     gun-control laws only affect the law-abiding citizens.
     Take action before it's too late, write or call your
     delegation.
     
     Paul Harvey

Past history is the best predictor of future performance or the lack thereof.

Registration then confiscation: Connecticut first

Posted on Monday, May 5, 2014 by BZ

From Ginny Simone:

Once again I say — and history has proven this time and time thereafter — persons who are unarmed are called Serfs, Proles, Groundlings.

“It’s not even in the cards — right now.” So says Lt J. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police. Sorry sir. I don’t believe you for an instant. You made an equivocation.

Surrendering our freedoms. Does this sound like America to you? Why do our soldiers fight for our so-called “rights” if we are simply in the process of giving them away to a New World Order that disdains state and national rights for an overarching global hegemony?

The Second Amendment does not — please let me emphasize this — exist to protect so-called “hunters.” It exists solely for the protection of the citizen from the actions of its government. Plain and simple. Nothing more, nothing less. I submit the founding fathers were frighteningly prescient.

Here’s the funny thing: I don’t see in the many videos available regarding the diminishment of our Second Amendment rights, many Asians or black or Mexicans. Because they should, en masse, have gathered around

Amendment II

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

One point of Libertarianism upon which I most wholeheartedly agree, and why I left the GOP and became a registered Independent:

“We’re better off when government was left small, and people were free.”
– John Stossel

Potential results of the Bundy Ranch, the IRS, ObamaCare and illegal immigration, in summary:

Posted on Wednesday, April 16, 2014 by BZ

If the feds keep arbitrarily “picking and choosing” which laws they wish to enforce, the electorate is left with no other option but the same thing: picking and choosing which laws THEY wish to obey. Or not.

BATFE raid on Ares Armor in National CIty, Fornicalia — a bit more detail

Posted on Friday, March 21, 2014 by BZ

[For reference, please see my previous post. – BZ]

And please read the entire article at TownHall.com.

The Ares Armor raid by BATFE on March 15th, Saturday, in National City, Fornicalia.

Video of the entry:

Though BATFE stacks up for forced entry, you can clearly see the disinterest in the real cop on the scene — the solitary National City police officer who must respond every day for at least 10 hours per shift to actual calls for service — unlike the BATFE, perfumed princesses. As with the bulk of federal law enforcement, they have no case load, great toys, fabulous funding and all day to digest their lunch..

Ares Armor website here. You may be interested in their timeline here. Ares Armor in National City is between San Diego and Chula Vista. Please see top graphic for relativity.

In the above video, you can hear the alarm activating because of the store breach. The single NCPD officer is providing nothing more than potential external threat protection though — at one officer — the perceived threat is minimal at best because, on a weekend day, many more officers would be present if necessary. And they have not responded in kind to perceived “threat.”

At least NPD and BATFE are sufficiently perspicacious to not arrest those who wish to video or photograph, in public, unlike some other LE agencies throughout the US — who have learned those lessons the hard way via large compensations paid against risk management.

Here, in this video, the BATFE cracks the Ares Armor safe inside the business.

And with that, goes much detailed information from private citizens to the US government simply because it deigns it can collect same.

Listen closely to the narrative comments made behind the video directly above. Highly interesting, I submit.

And for those of you who wish to know what an unarmed society yields, I proffer this for your consideration due to the loving embrace of Islam:

Last week Ares Armor, a company that sells firearms parts in San Diego, obtained a restraining order against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The restraining order was approved by Federal Judge Janis L. Sammartino and a federal raid of the business was prevented. ATF planned on raiding the company in order to gain access to a list containing more than 5,000 customer names. The customers on the list had purchased a plastic or polymer lower receiver from EP Armory, a part that is used to build rifles legally at home. The metal version of the receiver is legal due to being stamped with a serial number.

An unarmed nation finds itself abjectly controlled by those in power whose potentiality may overwhelm their rationality, balance, logic and proportion. Little, peaceful Sweden has one of the highest gun ownership rates on the planet and one can clearly see that, despite this fact, the country has not dissolved or erupted into mass chaos and turbulence.

Just what does the possession of firearms in the hands of taxpaying American citizens accomplish?

Oh yes. It keeps you from becoming a victim. A prole. A groundling. A serf. It keeps you free.

Feds now taking names of gun-parts buyers

Posted on Thursday, March 20, 2014 by BZ

All of you evil Second Amendment supporters, take note.

From WND.com:

by Bob Unruh

A federal raid by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on a San Diego gun-parts store chain has prompted criticism that the primary purpose of the operation was to collect the names and addresses of customers.

Despite a temporary restraining order, ATF agents obtained a search warrant and raided four Ares Armor stores over the weekend, according to San Diego’s KSWB-TV.

What the agents wanted were the stores’ computers, he wrote.

The ATF, which went to a judge privately to obtain the warrant, said it was investigating alleged violations of federal firearms laws that stemmed from the sale of a new plastic version of the 80 percent lowers of AR-15 rifles.

Building a rifle with specific versions of the 80 percent receivers is legal, the TV report explained. But the ATF said the polymer lower receiver appears to be manufactured differently with two parts, making them a firearm and illegal to sell.

But perhaps this is the crux of the biscuit:

The idea of collecting names and addresses of gun owners has been a fear of Second Amendment supporters since President Obama took office in 2009. They cite a historic pattern of governments that intend to confiscate guns establishing gun registration as a first step, to identify the owners.

Further, your loving federal government forcing you to become a felon in your own nation, because you stupidly cling to your ridiculous “gawd” and “gunz”? Perish the thought!

Except when the threat becomes reality:

In Connecticut, a law recently was passed requiring owners of certain firearms to submit their names, addresses and fingerprints. Hundreds of thousands refused, and now the state is faced with the possibility of having a large segment of its working population classified as felons. A similar issue is developing in New York state.

This, of course, on the heels of the BATFE’s operation Fast and Furious — which resulted in the killing of USBP Agent Brian Terry — by a weapon that was allowed to flow into Mexico specifically by the BATFE. The man who personally killed Brian Terry — is he here?

One bottom line?

In the San Diego case, the local Fox affiliate reported customers were getting nervous.

“I’m on that list,” one said, “and I’m waiting for the knock on the door to tell me they are here to remove my Second Amendment rights.”

That could never happen here, though.

Could it?

Bloviating Zeppelin

Right thinking from a Left brain.

Tag Archives: gun control