Beto Calls on Credit Card Companies to Stop Doing Business with Gun and Ammo Manufacturers

With polls showing him languishing in 10^th place, Democrat Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke seems to be willing to do anything to regain his position as the darling of the far left.

The failed senatorial candidate and former U.S. Representative from Texas is now looking to regain progressives’ favor by calling on banks and credit card companies to stop doing business with guns and ammo manufacturers.

O’Rourke pulled out all the stops to get the mainstream media to notice him again.

First, it was blaming Trump for the actions of every mass killer since Genghis Khan. Then it was testing the waters to see which foul-mouthed tirades against the President broadcast news could get away with. And who can forget his invective at his last debate when he proclaimed, “Hell yes, we’ll take your AR15s!”

As Evidence of O’Rourke’s desperation, consider this controversial tweet from Sept 12th:

Banks and credit card companies must:

1. Refuse to take part in the sale of assault weapons.

2. Stop processing transactions for gun sales online & at gun shows without background checks.

3. Stop doing business with gun & ammo manufacturers who produce or sell assault weapons

Like many of his other stunts, this is a rehash of old ideas. After the insistence of anti-gun extremists, several banking institutions have already done what Beto and other far left opponents of the 2^nd Amendment pushed for last year.

Since the Parkland, Florida school shooting it has become standard practice to encourage companies to shut out gun manufacturers and the NRA.

Delta Airlines announced in February 2018 it had terminated a discount program for passengers who were intending to fly Delta to the NRA’s 2018 Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas. The official reason for breaking its contract with NRA members was due to “the current national debate over gun control amid recent school shootings.”

Delta’s decision was bizarre in that a spokesperson said the statement reflected Delta’s “neutral status” and an attempt to “refrain from entering this debate.” By breaking a legal contract Delta took a proactive stand and plunged headlong into the debate by linking NRA members with school shootings.

After a Pittsburg shooting last October, Maria LaMagna of Market Watch asked, “If government officials won’t curb gun sales in the U.S…. How can we curb gun sales to help prevent yet another shooting that targets innocent people?”

Andrew Ross Sorkin a columnist for The New York Times, offered the suggestion that restricting the ways people can pay for guns could be the answer. He offered the following idea:

What if the finance industry — credit card companies like Visa, Mastercard and American Express; credit card processors like First Data; and banks like JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo — were to effectively set new rules for the sales of guns in America? Collectively, they have more leverage over the gun industry than any lawmaker. And it wouldn’t be hard for them to take a stand.

PayPal quit offering its services for the sale of firearms years ago, but the repercussions of that decision can still be felt. When asked about his former company’s decision to stop doing business with firearms merchants, co-founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel was adamant he would not have approved such a ban.

A vocal supporter of President Trump, Thiel said, “No, I wouldn’t be doing that if I was still running it.”

But even the Times recognizes the problem with many of the new wave of gun control ideas – they punish law-abiding citizens by dictating what they can and cannot buy.

More troubling to the Times is the reality that if the finance industry tries to restrict gun sales it will “push the most dangerous guns into an untraceable world where sales would depend on cash.”

Because politicians like Beto O’Rourke seldom consider anything beyond what will get them noticed today it is unlikely he has taken the time to even consider such a caution, even if it is from a liberal paper like The New York Times.

David Robertson, an analyst and the publisher of The Nilson Report said, “As long as they are legal, some company will handle the business.”

That proviso “as long as they are legal” is what troubles many supporters of The Second Amendment. Now that confiscating guns is on the table for all to see it’s time to take what Beto O’Rourke is saying more seriously.