courtesy americanbanker.com and Bloomberg

BofA says 151 employees were affected by mass shootings in U.S.

They’re responding to all the flack they’re getting for dropping gun companies with a BS PR barrage . . .

Bank of America’s new policy denying loans and other services to certain gun makers came after dozens of employees lost family members or suffered other trauma related to mass shootings in the past few years.

“This comes from our teammates saying we have to help,” Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan said Wednesday at the company’s annual meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina. Employee help centers provided services to 151 workers affected by shootings in Orlando, Las Vegas and other sites of mass casualties, according to the company.

Moynihan was responding to a questioner at the meeting who criticized the new policy as “following the whim of the moment” and not looking out for the long-term interests of shareholders.

Trump expected to speak at NRA meeting in Dallas

In addition to Pence or instead of him? . . .

President Trump is expected to speak at the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) annual meeting this week, a White House official confirmed Sunday.

The NRA’s annual meeting will take place May 3-6 in Dallas. Vice President Pence is scheduled to speak there on Friday.

Trump has delivered remarks at each of the past two annual meetings for the gun rights group.

courtsy huffingtonpost.ca and The Canadian Press

Canada’s Gun Control Laws Could Become Big Issue For 2019 Election

Give a gun grabber an inch and he’ll take every gun you have . . .

Justin Trudeau fired the first shot with Bill C-71, his Liberal government’s recently tabled effort to tighten Canada’s firearms law, including enhanced background checks for obtaining a firearms licence and mandatory record-keeping for vendors.

To Conservatives and gun advocates, it all smacks too much of the long-reviled long-gun registry — a creation of Jean Chretien’s Liberal government that is credited with taking away the seats of a number of Liberal MPs, particularly in rural areas. It was abolished by Stephen Harper’s Conservative government.

But the Liberals are hoping to turn the tables with a vigorous counter-offensive. They’re accusing the Conservatives of being shills for the gun lobby and they’re zeroing in on Andrew Scheer’s not-quite-forgotten leadership campaign platform, which was deleted from his website as soon as he took the helm of the Conservative party last May.

courtesy undark.com

Bringing Science to Bear, at Last, on the Gun Control Debate

To find the truth about guns, job one is to avoid David Hemenway . . .

In charting a course forward, it is necessary to move beyond “people’s anecdotal opinions,” says David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. He and other researchers are analyzing data and conducting studies with the ultimate goal of informing public policy.

It’s a tough task, in part because of a by now well-known piece of legislation called the Dickey Amendment, passed by Congress in 1996 with support of the National Rifle Association. This amendment prevented the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from using funds “to advocate or promote gun control.” It didn’t ban federally-funded gun research, but the legislation had a chilling effect: from 1996 to 2013, CDC funding in this area dropped by 96 percent.

Against this backdrop, it can be easy to overlook an important fact: Research into gun violence has actually increased in recent years, rising from fewer than 90 annual publications in 2010 to 150 in 2014. Universities, think tanks, private philanthropy — even the state of California — have been offering support. And last Wednesday, governors from six northeastern states and Puerto Rico announced plans to launch a research consortium to study the issue.

A December 2017 policy article published in the journal Science describes a “surge” of recent scientific publications. “The scope and quality of gun-related research is growing,” write the authors, a pair of researchers from Duke and Stanford, “with clear implications for the policy debate.” This research has generated significant findings about suicide, intimate partner violence, community health, and the effect of various state-level gun laws.

Emma Gonzalez’s Response To Kanye West’s Tweet About Her Is Kind Of Perfect

On April 28, West tweeted a photo of Parkland student and gun control activist Emma Gonzalez with a caption that said “my hero Emma Gonzalez.” Following the tweet, West went on to post a selfie with the caption “inspired by Emma.” For any high schooler, being called out as a hero by one of popular culture’s biggest icons should be a momentous occasion, but Gonzalez definitely isn’t the typical high schooler.

In response to West’s tweet about her, Gonzalez also took to Twitter to share a photo of James Shaw Jr., the man who took down an active shooter at a Tennessee Waffle House on April 22. In the tweet, Gonzalez used the exact same format as West by captioning the post “my hero James Shaw Jr.,” complete with two spaces between the word “hero” and the name after it, Mic drop.

Banks, Credit-Card Companies Explore Ways to Monitor Gun Purchases

The newly-reconstituted Operation Chokepoint . . .

Banks and credit-card companies are discussing ways to identify purchases of guns in their payment systems, a move that could be a prelude to restricting such transactions, according to people familiar with the talks.

The discussions are preliminary but could be deeply controversial. Gun-rights groups have long resisted any effort to monitor which Americans own guns; there are federal laws limiting the government’s use of electronic databases of gun sales.

courtesy thinkprogress.org

The myth that civilian gun ownership prevents tyranny

Name another country with pervasive civilian gun ownership that has descended into tyranny . . .

There is, of course, a clear link between the Second Amendment and freedom, insofar as it permits freedoms for individuals to purchase and bear arms in the United States. As Pew found last year, some three-quarters of gun owners say the right to civilian gun ownership is “essential” to “their own personal sense of freedom.”

But is the right to civilian gun ownership also essential to the prevention of tyranny? Is it a key ingredient to the preservation, implementation, and extension of democracy?

The short answer: No. Data compiled by ThinkProgress from the past decade shows no correlation between civilian gun ownership rates and democracy — or low civilian gun ownership rates and the rise of a tyrannical government.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

59 COMMENTS

  1. Think Progress? Really? You couldn’t dig up an article from the North Korean propaganda ministry? They might, at least, be more credible.

      • I agree with Dan. Well, except the “thinking” part. The Left has *clearly* demonstrated that they are incapable of thinking about anything beyond which variety of Tide Pod tastes the best.

      • If I wanted to be funny, I’d just answer “No”.

        But it is important to know what they are saying and thinking.

        We wouldn’t be able to deride and ridicule them otherwise.

      • As if it’s a mystery? They’ve already shown us their ass.

        Australia.

        But one better. Make that two better. First repeal, then ban, then confiscate.

      • Good morning Dan, Think progress is always good for a laugh. Especially on May day

    • “Think Progress? Really? You couldn’t dig up an article from the North Korean propaganda ministry? They might, at least, be more credible.”

      Serge, linked to that crap article by ‘Think Progress’ was another one by them that had a *VERY* interesting tid-bit in it I was completely un-aware of that impacts *us* in a very, VERY good way.

      Check it out :

      “And then there is in the single most frightening projection facing both large-D Democrats and small-d democrats in the United States. By 2040, according to Dean David Birdsell of the school of public and international affairs at Baruch College, “about 70% of Americans are expected to live in the 15 largest states.” That means that 70 percent of Americans “will have only 30 senators representing them, while the remaining 30% of Americans will have 70 senators representing them.”

      If America continues to polarize on geographic lines, with Americans in densely populated areas favoring Democrats and Americans in sparsely populated states preferring Republicans, that means that Republicans may soon enjoy an all-but-guaranteed majority in the United States Senate large enough to ensure that no legislation is enacted and no judge is confirmed under a Democratic president.”

      https://thinkprogress.org/democracys-lost-decade-fca7ff06f064/

      That sounds real good, but I’m a realist – Those states will be shedding high-income residents by the *millions* who will move to low-tax states… and take their Leftist voting habits with them. Polluting and turning them blue.

      But it apparently has the Leftists *very* concerned right now, and that’s always an official Martha Stewart ‘Good Thing’…

      *snicker* 😉

      “

      • If I might add, I *love* the pic at the top of the page I linked.

        That’s Trump’s inauguration, and the look on Hillary’s face is *priceless*. Looking at her, I just know what she was thinking – “That should have been me… That should have been me… That should have been me…” She’s practically *crying*.

        Leftist tears are the *sweetest* on earth. You just know she must have lost it on election night when they broke the news to her. She was in no condition to give a public concession speech… 😉

        • Ha! They’re calling it “Democracy’s lost decade” and whining that the Senate is “malapportioned”…the nincompoops. The Senate’s evenly distributed and inflexible apportioning isn’t a problem. It’s actually the perfect illustration of what this nation was created to be and still is — a REPUBLIC composed of many united states, not a direct democracy.

          Progressives, once again, get everything bass-ackwards. And they want to remake everything in their own perverted image. Garbage like this is why they must be fought and defeated. They really do hate everything America is and was ever meant to be.

        • say what you will about schools, but history is an important subject for this reason. Going over the New Jersey plan, the Virginia plan, and the bicameral system that emerged helps even some of the most dense understand. SOME, key point

    • “suicidal fruitcakes will find a way to make the world a better place and kill themselves.”
      “Make gang membership and narcotics offences punishable by summary execution and the homicide rate will drop like a rock.”

      Way to keep it classy there, Serge. Not that you’re wrong (hey, I got a chuckle from it)… we just won’t be winning any hearts by stating it like that.
      🤠

      • “… we just won’t be winning any hearts by stating it like that.”

        When you have them by their (*cough*), their ‘hearts and minds’ will follow… 🙂

    • Being a student of history…well, perhaps addicted to learning history is a better way to describe it…I can honestly say and prove that ThinkProgress is full of excrement. Why is it that the left always has to lie? I would have a whole lot more respect for them, and perhaps even spend more time listening to their dribble, if they would just be willing to have an honest debate.

  2. Well judging by these banks and recent liberal behavior, I guess I can open a buisness and refuse service to blacks, gays, and Jews. I suppose liberals would approve of that last one, even. Those anti Semetic little pricks are becoming quite the perfect National Socialists. Liberal Facism, the new “ism”.

    • No. That would be racist, mean, bigoted, and trying to be consistent. You may only refuse undesirables. Conservative Jews, white privileged men, smokers, gun owners, Christians, rednecks, police officers, soldiers, successful business owners* (unless they are liberals), people wearing MAGA hats, or American flag imagery, climate change deniers, etc.

      • If you carry a credit card with the bank you use the most, your purchasing data belongs to them.

        They can determine if you own guns and ‘adjust’ the interest rates on loans you apply for, or even if those loans are even available to you. They can determine if you are the kind of customer they want to do business with, and on what terms.

        Call it ‘GunLining’…

        • Just used my BoA card for tickets to a Ducks Unlimited dinner which includes a chance to win one of 15 firearms. Have never paid BoA a nickel of interest. I get my loans through my credit union.

  3. Imagine how many BofA employees have been effected by motor vehicle accidents. No more car loans!

    • Too bad BofA didn’t ask how many of their employees has been positively affected by a defensive gun use. I bet it’s ten times as many, or a hundred times, and that’s not counting all the armed guards in branches.

    • Or aids… Ban sodomy! Oh wait we aren’t really going off the numbers here are we?

    • Let me put their stupid statement into perspective. With a company the size of BoA, with the number of fulltime, part-time, and contract employees, that is a tiny fraction of a percent of the employees that work for them. BoA is a monster of a company with 142,412 employees. That number does not include contract employees, and believe me, large banks employ an astronomical number of low waged contract employees. No, they are trying to reverse the fallout. Perhaps they saw some videos on YouTube (before they got banned) of people blowing up Yeti coolers and replacing them with Pelican coolers.

      Oh, by the way, if someone from BoA and Yeti is paying attention, let me tell you what I am doing. First, my wife just ordered a Pelican cooler. It is small potatoes, but wait for the next sentence. I am in the final steps of refinancing my $250K RV with another bank because the current loan is through BoA. I know my single loan may be pocket change to BoA, but a lot of other people I know are doing the same.

  4. The answer to these piece of shit banks… Pay cash for all your firearm related purchases. I’ve been doing that for years, and the LGS really appreciates it. Why let the socialist banks know what you are buying and giving them an extra 3% taken from the LGS?

    • This is what the leftists want, no credit card sales means no internet sales, or at least less convenient, Sending cash, money orders or certified checks adds steps to process. Cali tried with ammo, now ammo from online sales have to be sent to FFL for a background check. Other states have tried to end internet sales guns and ammo but do not know which if have been successful.

      • I was speaking about sales thru local gun shops. However if you are serious about staying under the radar of these banks, a trip to your local Walmart and the purchase of Visa or Master cards with whatever amount you wish would do the trick as far as privacy is concerned. Yea, the dealer who you buy from still has to pay the 3% or so, you still have privacy.

        • Your idea does protects privacy to a degree, but if Visa decides that it won’t accept charges coded from firearms resellers, you are still cut off.

          This comment section is as bad as the come. The inability to upvote a post is just one of its limitations.

          • I sure hope it never comes to that. If it does, I foresee TSHTF and if Congress doesn’t stop it (I won’t hold my breath), the people will.

  5. This is the problem with the liberals who run places like ‘Think Progress’ – they really do think we’re that stupid.

  6. Maybe he should argue about gun control in North Korea, Mexico and numerous other one party countries. The stupid is so strong it must hurt.

  7. We may think ” Think Progress” is weapons grade stupid, but how many will swallow their swill?

  8. Seriously Kanye West is an idiot. Those saying “he loves Trump” are idiots. The Kardashian cabal will reel him in…

  9. There’s a certain unfortunate symmetry to Canada’s upcoming Bill C71, in that it makes life harder for average gun owners- statistically one of the most law abiding and least violent segments of our population. Meanwhile, Bill C75 makes life easier for gangsters and other assorted criminals- the ones who are doing the majority of the killing.

    The Liberals are really nervous about the reaction to C71. Lots of gun owners are getting out and calling and writing their members of Parliament and opposing it. There are lots of rural ridings that the Liberal members narrowly won last election. Gun owners can turn that around next time.

    • “Data compiled by ThinkProgress from the past decade shows no correlation between civilian gun ownership rates and democracy — or low civilian gun ownership rates and the rise of a tyrannical government.”

      The past DECADE?!?! Wow, they really stretched their research resources thin to look that far back in time.

      • That was my thought as well. In the realm of human political affairs, you really have to look at decades, even a couple of centuries, of data before you get any reasonable result..

  12. I my yute I had a BofA ccard (due to a bank merger). One of the worst possible banks you could find.

  13. The President speaking to the NRA will cause the gun grabbers heads to explode.

    And that makes my feelz all warm and fuzzy.

    Anything to annoy them is good in my eyes.

  14. “BofA says 151 employees were affected by mass shootings in U.S.”

    The Rookie says 100 million+ taxpayers were affected by BofA’s federal bailouts…

  15. Ummm, okay… with regard to B of Ass, and bank card purchases monitoring/restricting potential, et al….

    It is my money, and I will buy WHAT THE FUCK I WANT.

    Bank of “Whatever” can FOAD. If you don’t like it, then in the meantime of my looking for another bank that respects my American Constitutionally protected guaranteed civil rights, I will go to your ATM, withdraw cash, BUY WHAT THE FUCK I WANT INCLUDING GUNS AND AMMO AND ACCESSORIES (that make my guns more efficient and deadly), and twit-mail you a photo of the receipt (stuck on the bottom of my bare pimpled ass, you smarmy MFs).

    Not everyone here is going to be thrilled with my vulgarity or crass delivery– but I’d bet a winning ethnic horsey that every single one of us here thinks this 1984 shit is bloody outrageous, and we all share the sentiment that we are fed up with the absurdity of hypocritical corporations dipping into ignorant virtue pandering gun-shaming bullshit. A lot can be said about this, but it really boils down to the obvious: Banks manage OUR money– and you DON’T GET TO TELL US WHAT WE CAN AND CANNOT SPEND IT ON. SO FK YOU.

    And, really, time is running out to start walking back on this ridiculous nonsense, before it proves to be one the stupidest, most-short-sighted, most virulent customer backlash disasters in the history of American consumerism. Just wait until these hysterical social nanny cannibals move on to something other than guns– oh, but you opened that door, yes you did, dumbasses….

    That is all. Hope everyone is well. Be safe.

    PS– No, wait… still ranting…. Come to think… this latest wave of ignorant antigun hysteria since Parkland is one of the most obnoxious and irrational fads that American imbeciles have ever wrapped their pretty little vacant heads around. Truly. It was comically bizarre and silly at first, but now these brain-dead roaches are starting to propose and implement serving suggestions far in excess of a healthy chuckle and backhanded swat. It’s becoming a wee bit too much… especially if say, suddenly while buying groceries, my debit card is declined by a cashier because I’ve thrown in a box of boolits on sale…. The sad thing is, it’s probable that these kinds of oppressive tactics are eventually going to rub the wrong person entirely the wrong way, and then we’ll all again be blamed for unacceptable behavior… despite not being emotionally distraught over something that was, unfortunately, this time fairly provoked. What are these insane people thinking? I do actually feel sorry for them, all hellbent on running up to a hornets’ nest and just punching it *because they are certain of an outcome that has no basis in reality, and does not remotely resemble what they imagine it will be.* My god, they are so wrong… but they’re not very good listeners, are they, these antigun hysterics?

    Mama mia….

  16. Hmm. The B of A story was so irritating that I made raving comment with a potty mouth, and then forgot to sanitize it. The short version is… I will buy what I want with my money, because it is my money.

    It’s okay, Mr. Editor. Don’t post it. 🙂

    Be safe!

  17. *LATE BREAKING* addition to the ‘Digest’ –

    “Credit-Card Companies Explore New Ways To Monitor Gun Purchases”

    “The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that some lenders are now discussing ways to identify purchases of guns through their payment systems. This would effectively transform them into tools of the intelligence services by monitoring virtually all gun sales at sporting goods stores and other merchants that aren’t transacted in cash.

    As the Wall Street Journal explains, card networks like Visa and Mastercard can request approval for what’s called a merchant category code – or MCC – a protocol that’s governed by a Switzerland-based nonprofit. The code can be applied to gun merchants so that banks can flag new gun purchases using their credit cards.”

    “One bank has even had conversations with lawmakers about a bill to require merchants to report ALL purchases of certain “gun-related” products.”

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/banks-card-companies-explore-ways-to-monitor-gun-purchases-1525080600

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-30/credit-card-companies-explore-new-ways-monitor-gun-purchases

    This is *serious* shit, people…

    • And how *appropriate*, the news broke in the early hours of May 01.

      May Day.

      The Leftist-Marxist-Socialist-Communist *Holiday*…

  18. All infringements! Plain and simple! All need to be overturned based upon the evidence. Contrary to the excuse of Public Safety. They have all been systematic attacks against all our Constitutional Amendments in The US Bill of Rights! It is tyranny! Period! We must fight back by every means possible from enemy’s both foreign and domestic!

  20. Are these Pew/ThinkProgress people dense and retarded? Well, why do i even ask, of course they are.
    Countries with a lot or guns, people organised in militias, and a long-standing democracy: USA, Switzerland.
    Countries without individual guns rights that had a tyranny at some point: everybody else.

    • At least they are already a huge target for miscreants (and that most of those are born of the MFn POS ass-sweat (D) ).

      Traffic jam a few cops with a ‘march’ protest in a few big cities and BofCommunism might get a few tellers and security guards roughed up in public.

      I mean, as long as we’re all just going along fucking with each other, with impunity.

  22. The big banks are acting like they are engaged in a conspiracy to restrain interstate commerce. They are a perfect target for the Sherman Act. I suspect NSSF is already working on the suit.

  23. Fuck BofA in its back coin slot.

    In charting a course forward, it is necessary to move beyond
    ALL
    BOUGHT AND PAID FOR SHILL-DOUCHE’S LIKE David Hemenway, AND THE EVIL POS MFn ANTI-AMERICAN AND ANTI-CONSTITUTIONAL (D) Harvard Injury Control Research Center.

    • And, if they want to track us, then they don’t get to play “bank” without surviving a beating first, and then wear an ankle monitor and a 20 lb. radio collar.

      I don’t write new banking legislation, I just make it up and enforce it.

  24. If science was actually brought to bear on the effectiveness of gun control laws, the 2nd Amendment and the stance of gun rights activists would prevail.

    DGUs vastly overwhelm the number of criminal homicides and suicides. Proper training will help reduce what is left.

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