Wells Fargo
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One of the ways that states have successfully fought back against big banks and other firms blacklisting gun industry businesses is with Firearms Industry Nondiscrimination (FIND) laws. If a lender — say, for instance, Bank of America, Citibank, or JP Morgan Chase — refuses to do business or calls the loan of a company that makes, distributes or sells guns because they’re involved in the firearms business, that lender is no longer eligible to do business with the state.

This was all a result of the Obama era Operation Choke Point effort to starve the gun industry of the services like banking, insurance, and credit card processing it needs to operate.

FIND laws have been passed by a number of states including Louisiana, Montana and Texas, punishing companies with discriminatory, anti-gun business practices. The laws hit the big banks especially hard, preventing them from underwriting big bond issues in FIND law states, cutting off the opportunity for them to earn fat underwriting fees.

One of the companies that says it’s been the target of exactly this kind of anti-gun discrimination is Ruger. According to an article at The Texan, Ruger was told by Wells Fargo that they would no longer be extending working capital credit to the firearm manufacturer despite being a highly profitable, publicly traded business with lots of cash and zero debt.

As Ruger describes their communication with the bank . . .

…our local contact at Wells Fargo informed our Chief Financial Officer that ‘Wells Fargo would not extend any new credit to us and therefore would not renew our credit line. (due to expire in September) due to “reputational and headline risk” related to our industry. ‘When pressed about these “concerns,” our Wells Fargo contact cited our manufacture of modern sporting rifles as a “red flag.” We were unsuccessful in engaging Wells Fargo management on the issue and were forced to search fora new bank.

The FIND law requires banks that wish to do business with the state of Texas to verify in writing that they are not in violation of the law’s requirements. Wells Fargo did that back in 2021. Once Ruger heard that and stopped laughing at what appears to be a bold-faced lie, they alerted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton

Paxton’s office, however, claims they were unable to determine that Wells Fargo is in violation of the FIND law. In other words, they’re letting the bank get away with it.

As a result of Paxton’s refusal to find Wells Fargo in violation of the law, Ruger sent a letter to Texas lawmakers last month, in effect saying WTF and requesting that the legislature “exercise its oversight authority and investigate whether the Attorney General’s office has appropriately applied” the FIND law. You can read the full letter here.

As Ruger’s VP and General Counsel Kevin Reid said in the letter,

Clearly, the goal of these efforts is to deprive us of the basic services necessary to run our (or any) business, thereby making it virtually impossible for us to conduct normal operations. This is precisely what the FIND Act is designed to prevent, and we applauded its passage.

And…

With all this as background, Wells Fargo’s verification that it does not discriminate ‘against the firearm industry or a firearm trade association strains credulity. Moreover, the Attomey General’s failure to meaningfully enforce this law renders it toothless, strips Texans of the protections afforded by the law, and empowers financial institutions to discriminate against a constitutionally protected industry while benefiting financially from the taxpayers of Texas.

Well yeah. Again, you can read the full letter from Ruger here.

In the end, the big question here is, why has Texas’s Attorney General given Wells Fargo a free pass?

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64 COMMENTS

    • What? Attorney General Paxton can be bought? I am shocked, shocked I tell you!

      It’s simple, any big business just needs to hire his girlfriend or put her up in a luxury apartment or maybe a new car…

      It’s not like Republican Attorney General Paxton gives a shit about anybody but him, he’s just another Wayne LaPierre… Grifting from the gun folks. Carry-on!

      • You’re not impressing anyone. The Biden AG is your guy, is locking up 70 year old grandmother’s. Who are exercising their 1st amendment civil right.

        • “The Biden AG is your guy, is locking up 70 year old grandmother”

          That sounds very interesting, could you provide any details?

        • “That sounds very interesting, could you provide any details?”

          Look it up for yourself. It’s part of the learning process.

        • Telling people “look it up for yourself” actually means that you can’t articulate your point with factual information. It also shows that you want others to figure out your point for you in hopes that they’ll fall prey down the same misinformation rabbit hole that you fell into. This usually doesn’t work because most people aren’t anywhere near as ignorant as you are.

        • “Telling people “look it up for yourself” actually means that you can’t articulate your point with factual information.”
          No, it means Chris recognizes you are intellectually dishonest. You don’t care about the truth, only the spin to match your perverted world-view. Woke Liberlism = mental illness.

        • @Miner49er

          “Telling people ‘look it up for yourself’ actually means that you can’t articulate your point with factual information. It also shows that you want others to figure out your point for you in hopes that they’ll fall prey down the same misinformation rabbit hole that you fell into. This usually doesn’t work because most people aren’t anywhere near as ignorant as you are.”

          No, telling people ‘look it up for yourself’ does not mean that, it means just what it says because no one here has any obligation to inform you or look stuff up for you because when you join a discussion you are expected to have some knowledge about the subject or able to get some knowledge in the subject on your own.

          You are begging to be spoon fed, to have someone else do the work for you instead of you finding out for your self. Your reply is actually the made up self-serving definition used by ignorant people who can’t actually ‘look it up for their selves’ and need to be spoon fed to continue their stupid arguments because they don’t know how to do actual research nor do they understand what context is nor do they have any genuine interest in legitimate discussion.

          The information is available with a little research, and obviously his comment was intended to be short and written for those who do have some knowledge of the subject and understand the context so they don’t need to be further informed. It is not his job to inform you or spoon feed you because you are ignorant on a subject. So unless you have some actual knowledge on the subject and can keep up, keep out of the discussion and stop trolling and learn what research and context means.

          You are intellectually dishonest not only with people here but to your self as well.

        • “You don’t care about the truth“

          So neither you nor Chris can support his claim, got it.

          “It is not his job to inform you“

          Chris is who made the claim, therefore the burden of proof is upon him to back up his statement.

          Otherwise, it’s just empty speech.

        • “You are intellectually dishonest not only with people here but to your self as well“

          So you can’t support his claim as well, got it.

          Just more bloviating.

        • @miner, we don’t share the info you request because you don’t care if it’s true. you could’ve Google the claim in less time than it took you to reply but you’re not of genuine character. You must be so lonely!

        • Yep, gotta bring your own fruit to a discussion with miner/dacian/al, because otherwise it will be a completely fruitless conversation.

      • MINOR49er, Why should you be “shocked”? After all the Bidens have been for sale since Joe became a politician.

    • Don’t get sucked into the war that the POS Tx House Speaker Dade Phelan is waging on Paxton. This reads like Phelan next losing attack.

      There just is no end to Wells Fargo’s need to demonstrate they are the WORST bank in the US.

  3. “… why has Texas’s Attorney General given Wells Fargo a free pass?”

    I have no idea. I can only wonder what Wells Fargo or some ultra-wealthy busy-body provided in terms of “incentives” for the Texas Attorney General’s office to turn a blind eye on Wells Fargo.

    • “… why has Texas’s Attorney General given Wells Fargo a free pass?”

      You can rest assured, it wasn’t a ‘free’ pass.

      Republican grifters demand premium prices to sell their integrity, no one gets a free pass.

      The good people of Texas should impeach Paxton for his obvious corruption… Oh wait, y’all tried that and the grifters won.

      It seems the state of Texas has the best Attorney General money can buy.

      • Don’t worry the republicans are going to force everyone in Congress to vote on whether to remove Biden from office. I look forward to the campaign ads.

      • Not a big Ken Paxton fan but the fact that the prosecution had little to no evidence but lots of “feels” played an overwhelming part in his acquittal. I know you like the thought of Soviet kangaroo-style courts but this is still America, sort of

        • “the prosecution had little to no evidence“

          It seems you did not watch the live stream of the actual testimony

        • “the Obiden criminal prosecution“

          There is a new criminal prosecution of Joseph Biden, you must be confused, it’s former President Donald Trump who is under criminal indictment with 91 felony charges.

          And regarding the impeachment inquiry, the Republicans’ star witness John Turley declared in his opening statement there wasn’t any evidence to impeach President Biden.

      • MINOR49er, You have the intestinal fortitude to talk about “Republican grifters”? Remember Your bud, Sen. Martinez? This article is rich with inuendo but a bit short on evidence other than ass-U-me-tions.

      • “Republican grifters demand premium prices to sell their integrity, no one gets a free pass.”

        Great. Now do the Bidens in particular and Democrats in general.

  5. Disclaimer: I am NOT speaking in defense of the Texas Attorney General.

    For the last 10 to 20 years I have wondered if the Upper Echelon of the Ruling Class (the people sitting on $500 million or more in cash) have been sending out elite professional “fixers” to coerce government politicians and bureaucrats to do the bidding of that Upper Echelon. Note that said coercion could easily take the form of double-incentives–where the target gets a serious cash reward for cooperating and a serious penalty (death of themselves or loved ones) if they oppose.

    How could that NOT be happening? Remember, the Upper Echelon of the Ruling Class have nearly infinite cash, human, and material resources to execute their will. Not only does that enable their elite professional fixers to succeed, it also means that they can almost certainly avoid prosecution even if word gets out.

  6. Coming on the heels of Paxton’s acquittal, I find the timing of Ruger’s alleged complaints curious, particularly its request that the legislature “investigate” the AG — again.

    • Was thinking that too. I don’t think I’ve heard specifically what it was that he was supposed to be impeached for exactly.

      • Ruger started this inquiry with Texas before he was impeached. The impeachment was a farce, by the way. 16 charges, witnesses didn’t have proof, the prosecution didn’t have proof. The House is run by power-craving assholes who love to help Democrats and do not serve the citizens, and they hate Paxton, who isn’t one of them. One time this session, the House speaker showed up clearly drunk, I still do not understand why he wasn’t reprimanded. Oh yeah – I do know why. The House is run by tyrants and they want to keep it that way. If the Senate had voted guilty on only one charge, he would have been removed from office. Paxton was acquitted on every charge.

        I have no idea why Ruger was told Wells Fargo wasn’t in violation of the law. I have not seen a detailed explanation from the AG’s office anywhere. But because Ruger has no production plants here, I seriously doubt they were involved in in-state politics.

        • “The impeachment was a farce“

          Sure it was…

          You know, the house didn’t start the investigation or the impeachment until Attorney General Paxton came to the house and demanded $3.3 million to pay off the whistleblowers.

          One wonders why Paxton would be willing to pay over $3 million of taxpayer money to quietly settle the whistleblowers claims if there was no merit to their accusations…

          You people supporting Paxton are sad, sad clowns, either you are too cognitively impaired to see his grift or you are complicit.

        • Paxton was impeached because he isn’t playing ball with leftists and they want Texas in their control more than any other state….

        • MINOR49er. Gee, that is an accusation which to this day remains UNPROVEN. You sure do like slinging led. But a bit short on proof.

    • Wasn’t Paxton, while he was under “impeachment”, blocked from his office?
      Who exactly in his office signed off on that decline of service to Ruger re Wells Fargo?
      Perhaps the AG, now that he has survived his impeachment ordeal, needs to do some internal housecleaning>

  8. RE: Regular Joe and Debbie W.: Yes, that makes the most sense. Paxton just managed to slap down a blatant (and pathetic) attempt to push him out of office by the GOPe/Bush axis of the Texas Republican Party, so a sneaker punch by an establishment tool such as Wells Fargo sounds like a get-even ploy.
    And really, Wells Fargo? The scum that opened thousands of unasked-for accounts for people just to rack up megabucks in fees? Give me a break.

  13. Ken Paxton isn’t anti-gun, he’s also not a Wells Fargo crony, having launched investigations over the years specifically targeting them, as to why they are F-ing over customers and industries – including gun manufacturers.

    The Texas law referenced here is so rigid that after it passed a couple years ago, almost 100 bank and investment firms wrote Texas immediately saying – yes, sir, we will comply. They had to write these letters because if they did not formally acknowledge compliance with this law, the state of Texas would not do business with them. These letters kept coming in even after Uvalde.

    Citigroup decided to not comply. This year Texas told Citigroup to GFY, and they’ve lost billions of dollars in business here.

    I don’t know what’s going on in this case, but to assume Wells Fargo is getting a friendly pass – when there has been no evidence of Texas treating that bank in that way because it is clearly a shitty bank, and when there is an example that Texas will cut off a major bank from doing business in the state for not following this state law, and without really knowing anything but Ruger’s allegation – is just stupid.

    Maybe the AG’s office F’d up, because it was in disarray from this impeachment BS? I don’t know. I can guarantee you Ken Paxton wasn’t doing the investigation himself. I need more information before drawing a conclusion.

  14. Come off it. There are plenty of other banks that offer credit, and I assume some even in Texas. If Wells Fargo doesn’t want Rugers business, someone else will.

    It’s like a baker baking a cake against their will. Plenty of other cake makers out there.

    • Except you don’t know that, and the problem is that a place can be permanently shut down unless there is some sort of bank of last resort- you know, like the federal government provides to the massive banks whenever they get in over their heads?

      It’s not like a cake baker. It’s most like a gas station. You cannot run a business without the financial system. And the system WILL freeze you out if you do not follow their interests- which happen to align with the current federal administration.

      Remember the twitter files? Sure, twitter (the ‘private corporation’) was the one banning people and censoring speech, so it was legal- but it was the government agencies stepping in behind the curtain and telling them what to do.

      • I do know there are many other available creditors. It’s not hard to find them.

        Like finding another cake shop.

      • “Remember the twitter files?”

        The info from Twitter did not contain any evidence whatsoever of Biden administration pressure to censor any tweets.

        However, what was revealed was Donald President Donald Trump’s pressure on Twitter to delete unflattering tweets about him, specifically one by Chrissy Teigen:

        “Trump WH asked Twitter to censor Chrissy Teigen tweet: ex-employee
        By Emily Crane

        Published Feb. 8, 2023
        Updated Feb. 8, 2023, 5:47 p.m. ET

        Former President Donald Trump’s White House asked Twitter to censor one of Chrissy Teigen’s tweets after the model referred to the 45th president as a “p—y ass b—h,” a former Twitter worker told a congressional hearing Wednesday.“

        • MINOR49er, wow! An accusation made by a Leftist “journalist” and you spit it back at us. Amazing!

  15. Maybe violating a FIND law should be a penal felony for the CEO, the CFO, and the Board of Directors of the violating bank.

    • “Find evidence, then write th article… “

      That’s not how the Republicans work, they don’t give a shit if there’s evidence, just like their claims that the election was stolen.

      “We have lots of theories, we just don’t have any evidence… “

      • MINOR49er. There is PLENTY of evidence of Biden’s chicanery and two fisted money grabbing. Just look at his son, Hunter, the addict.

  18. Someone left the window open, and the pigeon got in.

    He’s strutting around and crapping on the board again.

  22. A lot of Republicans went to bat for this guy Paxton when he was hit with a lot of charges aimed at getting him removed for office. Maybe they should have just let him twist.

  23. Maybe, just maybe, Ken Paxton was locked out of his office and away from his staff while the RINOS in the Texas legislature were trying to impeach him?

  24. Paxton only regained control of his office a week ago. Everything from right after the election, when Democrats and Bush Republicans started their utterly dishonest impeachment effort against Paxton, until last week is all on the Democrats and the Bushes.

  25. Checking the dates, yes, the dismissive response from Paxton’s office came in August of this year, when the office was not under Paxton’s control.

    How did Truth About Guns miss this? Did you really not know that Paxton was only acquitted of impeachment charges this month, and that he was locked out if his office until then?

    Blame falls entirely on the Democrats and the RINO Bush Republicans who engineered the usurpatious phony impeachment effort.

    Here is an excerpt from Ruger’s letter to Paxton’s office. Maybe look into the allegiances of assistant AG Leslie Brock:

    … With that said, I was dismayed to learn that the Texas Attorney General’s office recently announced that it has “not been able to determine that Wells Fargo has a policy or practice that discriminates against a firearm entity or firearm trade association.” Based upon our own experience, and other publicly available information detailed below, we seriously question this +See lttr dated August 25,2023 from AAG Leslie Brock to All Bond Counsel dated August 25,2023, attched as Exhibit]

  26. The article says the AG’s office declined to prosecute. When did this ruling occur? When Bacon wss suspended due to a bogus impeachment charge?

  27. I have not forgiven Ruger for touting the “‘high’ capacity magazine” ban on civilian ownership in 1989. It was a hit on smaller competitors, and sucking up to government, the Constitution and principle be damned. This could be a more subtle attack on our solidarity from within, though I am at a loss to explain it.

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