Wells Fargo Gets Horrible News After Refusing to Bow to Gun Grabbers... They Need Our Support
As part of their non-stop effort at imposing strict gun control upon the American population, anti-gun advocates have launched a political pressure campaign against corporations in addition to their typical legislative track toward undermining the Second Amendment.
That effort has succeeded in compelling a number of companies to cut ties with the National Rifle Association and even led to two major banks announcing significant lending policy changes toward the firearms industry.
But according to CNN, one major financial institution in the U.S. has refused to bow before the demands of the gun grabbers and unilaterally sever all ties to gun manufacturers — Wells Fargo.
On April 13, Wells Fargo spokesman Alan Elias said in a statement, “As our CEO has publicly stated, we do not believe that the American public wants banks to decide which legal products consumers can and cannot buy.
“We believe this issue requires a legislative solution that allows the public to voice their concerns,” he added.
Furthermore, Wells Fargo chief financial officer John Shrewsberry informed reporters at the time that the bank was “not currently setting policy in our extension of credit” toward gun manufacturers and would not cease lending to such businesses in spite of the demands of the anti-gun crowd.
Of course, that was the exact opposite of what the gun-control advocates wanted to hear, so the left has struck back at the financial institution by way of the second-largest teachers union in the country, the American Federation of Teachers, according to The Washington Post.
Citing the bank’s continued involvement in the firearms industry and ties to the NRA, the AFT union and its 1.7 million members have dropped Wells Fargo as their preferred mortgage lender. It is estimated that more than 20,000 union members hold a home mortgage with Wells Fargo as part of a special program that grows by an average of 1,600 new mortgages every year.
AFT President Randi Weingarten wrote in a Thursday letter to Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan that her union “can only assume” the bank “has decided that the NRA business is more valuable to you than students and educators are.”
She further insinuated that the NRA had unfairly “attacked” the union and its members “in the vilest of ways” — as if teacher-backed student protests falsely accusing the NRA of murdering children and having blood on their hands wasn’t vile as well.
Weingarten informed Sloan that effective immediately, the AFT would no longer offer or promote the special Wells Fargo mortgage program to their members
That reply had been in response to an April 3 letter sent from Sloan to Weingarten which stated the bank’s position: “We believe that the best way to make progress on the complex issues concerning gun violence is through the political and legislative process in which all citizens have the opportunity to participate.”
That letter from Sloan proceeded to explain the incredible value of the special mortgage program offered to the union members, which included assistance with down payments for new home purchases as well as grants and interest-free loans to union members in the event of disability, layoffs or even strikes — not to mention the tens of millions of dollars Wells Fargo had contributed annually toward education-related philanthropic causes.
The bank also said it exhibited “strict due diligence” in its dealings with companies within the firearms industry to ensure that all applicable state and federal laws were followed.
The letter concluded by calling for a continued dialogue on possible solutions to gun violence, but also stated that it simply wasn’t the bank’s place as a public lending institution to decide what sort of legal products law-abiding American citizens could purchase if they so desired.
That apparently was not satisfactory for the anti-gun teachers union, which has foolishly shot itself in the foot by severing ties with a major bank that offered an incredible sweetheart deal on mortgage loans to union members.
And these are the folks who teach our nation’s children.
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