Bank of America (yes, the same Bank of America that was bailed out with your tax dollars) allegedly dropped McMillan Group, a company that manufactures firearms and accessories.
Glenn explained that McMillan is comprised of McMillan Fiberglass Stocks, McMillan Firearms International, and McMillan Group International, and that all three companies had been model customers of Bank of America’s for twelve years.
“We know who Bank of America is. They are in the pocket of this administration. They are in the pocket of this government now. And this government never does anything straight up – this is why Cass Sunstein is the most dangerous man in America. They regulate. They isolate. They put you out of business. They're not going to come after the guns. They'll just put everybody out of business. This is what is happening now with McMillan,” Glenn said.
On Thursday, the Director of Operations, Kelly McMillan explained on McMillan’s Facebook page:
Today Mr. Ray Fox, Senior Vice President, Market Manager, Business Banking, Global Commercial Banking [of Bank of America] came to my office. He scheduled the meeting as an ‘account analysis’ meeting in order to evaluate the two lines of credit we have with them. He spent 5 minutes talking about how McMillan has changed in the last 5 years and have become more of a firearms manufacturer than a supplier of accessories.At this point I interrupted him and asked, ‘Can I [possibly] save you some time so that you don’t waste your breath? What you are going to tell me is that because we are in the firearms manufacturing business you no longer what my business.’
‘That is correct’ he [said].
I replied ‘That is okay, we will move our accounts as soon as possible. We can find a 2nd Amendment friendly bank that will be glad to have our business. You won’t mind if I tell the NRA, SCI and everyone one I know that BofA is not firearms industry friendly?’
‘You have to do what you must’ he said.
‘So you are telling me this is a politically motivated decision, is that right?’
Mr. Fox confirmed that it was. At which point I told him that the meeting was over and there was nothing left for him to say.
Bank of America responded by posting the following on their Facebook page:
"We want to let you know that we hear your comments and questions regarding one of our customers. While we cannot discuss the details of any individual client we work with, we can assure you the allegations being made here are completely false. Bank of America does not have a policy that prohibits us from banking clients in this industry. In fact, we have numerous, longstanding customers in the industry."We are also extremely proud of our support of the US military and reject any assertion to the contrary. We count as clients many companies that provide for our nation's defense. We employ thousands of veterans, Guardsmen, and Reservists, and plan to increase our hiring this year.”
McMillan responded to that statement with the following:
In response to Bank of America's public statement:The statement we [McMillan] posted was an accurate account of the events that transpired late last week. McMillan Group has been in good standing with B of A and a loyal customer for the past 12 years. We were told that we must finalize all of our accounts because we manufacture firearms.
McMillan cannot speak for Bank of America's company wide policies, but we can speak out about our personal experiences.
We [McMillan] kindly suggest that if Corporate Bank of America has no policy against conducting business with firearms manufactures, then they should communicate these policies with their regional Vice Presidents and other management.
I just want to let everyone we will post here and on our website which bank we finally choose as our bank. We have had a large number of banks that have expressed an interest in being our bank of choice. You can rest assured that we will pick the appropriate bank and that they will be clear about their support of our 2nd Amendment rights and the firearms industry in general.Many of you may have seen BofA's official position. Frankly it doesn't surprise me. It hurts some for others to claim that I am dishonest and that what I posted didn't happen, but it doesn't surprise me. I haven't made any claims about what their policy is, I haven't even made any speculation. I just reported the events which took place in my office.
I am in the process of checking with my merchant services provider to find out whether or not I will be able to discontinue taking BofA credit cards for payment. It has been mentioned that my contract with Visa and MasterCard may prevent me from doing so. Either way I will let everyone no when I get the news.
I remember a saying I have heard most of my life, if you tell the truth you don't have to have a good memory. Rest assured my story won't change. I might get better at typing and proof reading, God knows I need that, but the story remains the same.
Again thanks to everyone for your support. Do me a favor and tag in and let me know if you happen to hear any of the radio interviews scheduled over the next few days.
“This is how companies do business now. They're fighting on the Facebook,” Stu said.
Glenn explained that Bank of America does not have a policy that bans them from doing business with firearms companies. He also pointed out that Bank of America took the DNC’s donor mailing list as collateral for a $32 million dollar line of credit. What kind of message does that send to cash starved small businesses?
“That’s creepy,” Stu said, “that any company that would be using personal information like that as collateral for a loan.”
Glenn noted that while he doesn’t do boycotts, but if you are looking for a bank, this is something you should take into consideration, and if you’re looking for a gun, you may want to check out McMillan Firearms.
“Why would you be in business with anybody who is at all unclear or fuzzy, even though they don't have a corporate wide policy?” Glenn asked. Glenn noted that maybe they should have a corporate wide policy that their branches don’t discriminate against businesses or individuals because of their 2nd Amendment rights.
“Nobody is covering this story,” Glenn said. “You’d think that would be a big story wouldn’t you?”