Gun maker claims BofA froze funds, said he ‘should not be selling guns online’

Gun maker claims BofA froze funds, said he ‘should not be selling guns online’

CaptureAnother shot has been fired across the bow at Bank of America by a gun manufacturer. Joe Sirochman, owner of American Spirit Arms, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., alleges that BofA froze the company’s receipts on the grounds that it takes a dim view of selling guns on the Internet.

The complaint, which first appeared on Facebook, was picked up over the weekend by Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit. In it, Sirochman notes that he has done business with BofA for over 10 years, presumably without a hitch. Then came the recent shootings in Newtown and with that tragedy a well-documented increase in guns sales nationwide. Sirochman says his on online orders rose by 500%, which is when he sensed a problem with BofA’s processing of payments received. He writes:

After countless hours on the phone with BANK OF AMERICA I finally got a Manager in the right department that told me the reason that the deposits were on hold for FURTHER REVIEW …HER EXACT WORDS WERE … ‘WE BELIEVE YOU SHOULD NOT BE SELLING GUNS and PARTS ON THE INTERNET.’

This is not the first time Bank of America has been called out for alleged unfair treatment of a gun manufacturer. In April 2012, another Arizona-based firearms company called shenanigans on the bank. FOX News repoted:

Kelly McMillian, operations director of the McMillian companies – which makes rifles, ammunition, gunstocks and related firearms equipment – said a bank vice president explained at a meeting last week that he no longer wanted McMillan’s business because the companies manufacture firearms.

‘This has nothing to do with our financial position,’ McMillian said Friday. ‘He said the bank needed to assess the risk of doing business with a firearms manufacturer.’

[…]

A Bank of America spokeswoman denied McMillian’s account, and told Fox News that Bank of America has never had any policies prohibiting them from banking or lending to clients in the firearms industry. She said that the bank has longstanding relationships with many companies in the industry.

‘Bank of America holds in high regard every right guaranteed in the US Constitution and all it’s amendments, including the Second Amendment,’ she added in an e-mail message to Fox News.

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Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy has written for The Blaze, HotAir, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, Conservative Firing Line, RedCounty, and New York’s Daily News. He has one published novel, Hot Rain, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and has been a guest on Radio Vice Online with Jim Vicevich, The Alana Burke Show, Smart Life with Dr. Gina, and The George Espenlaub Show.

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