Many conservatives and Republicans, who are largely encumbered by their blind commitment to pro-corporate policies. However, the state of Louisiana has taken the threat that Corporate America poses to the Second Amendment seriously.
On November 18, 2021, the Louisiana Bond Commission voted replace to JPMorgan with Wells Fargo in a $700-million deal. This move to boot the financial titan from Louisiana’s municipal bond market was propelled by its anti-Second Amendment policies, of which the commission asked JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon about a few weeks prior. The purpose of this inquiry was to clarify what his company’s stance was with regards to doing business with the firearms industry.
Republican State Treasurer John Schroder kicked off this investigation by reviewing JPMorgan’s gun policies after CEO Jamie Dimon made some comments to a Congressional committee earlier this year where he said his company won’t fund companies that make so-called “military-style” firearms.
“I’m not selling our Second Amendment rights to corporate America,” declared Schroder, at the Bond meeting in Baton Rouge.
Back in 2019, Louisiana started asking banks whether they feature policies that transgress on Louisiana citizens’ rights to bear arms. This was part of the application process that firms had to go through if they wanted to underwrite bond deals. At that juncture, JPMorgan confirmed it did not have those anti-Second Amendment policies in place.
However, in the advance of the bond sale, Schroder confirmed that his office inquired banks in the underwriting applicant pool whether they helped finance the manufacture of several weapons that everyday citizens use.
JPMorgan did not respond to that question and their refusal to do so led to them being disqualified from underwriting the sale, Schroder stated.
Louisiana isn’t the only state that’s clamping down on doing business with anti-gun financial actors that have discriminatory policies towards the firearms industry. Earlier this year, the Texas State Legislature passed a law that prevents anti-gun banks from entering the municipal bond market. As Cam Edwards of Bearing Arms observed, this move has resulted in “a number of companies (including JPMorgan) to miss out on hundreds of millions of dollars in deals.”
Edwards added that these state crackdowns are beginning to influence the financial sector.
Citigroup is one of the largest underwriters in Texas. It recently issued a statement declaring its determination to resume doing business in the Lone Star State under the new legal framework that defends the firearms industry and its proponents.
Daniel Tomson and Paul Creedon, the co-heads of public finance for Citigroup, sent a letter to Attorney General Paxton, in which they argued that their business does not discriminate against any business that’s involved in manufacturing or selling firearms or even any organizations or non-profits that champion the Second Amendment.
After stating that it’s complying with Texas’ new law, on November 17, 2021 Citigroup was awarded with its first bond bid in the state since the new law was implemented.
Edwards observed that the bank “won an auction for a $27 million bond offering sold by the Alamo Heights Independent School District.”
Before the deal is finalized, the attorney general’s office must sign off on this deal, a move that is required in any transaction dealing with public debt in Texas.
All told, Republican states need to stop coddling big businesses who work against our God-given right to self-defense. The days of giving them tax cuts and sweetheart deals are over. If they can’t respect Americans’ freedoms, they should not be allowed to operate with special privileges.
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