Wells Fargo still hasn’t caved to pressure from the anti-gun industry. (Photo: Wells Fargo Facebook)
Just weeks after a group of nuns and big-money investors forced Smith & Wesson and Ruger to account for their role in promoting “gun violence,” Wells Fargo threw some of its considerable financial resources behind one of the world’s largest gunmakers, Sturm, Ruger & Co.
The bank issued the company a $40 million line of credit last week, stunning members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, who had been working with investors to force gunmakers to address the “risks” inherent in its products’ association with gun-related violence.
“This is shocking news because we are in sustained dialogue with Wells Fargo,” Nora Nash, a sister at St. Francis of Philadelphia, told Bloomberg. “This new business relationship with Sturm Ruger is in direct conflict with ethics, culture and respect for human rights throughout the company.”
The nuns may have lost their habits, but Wells Fargo’s move should come as no surprise to gun owners.
SEE ALSO: No Changes to What Ruger Makes and Sells to Law Abiding Citizens, Despite Shareholder Proposal
Earlier this year, the bank stood up to one of the nation’s largest teacher’s unions when it refused to change its company policies after the union threatened to pull their participation in Wells Fargo’s home mortgage program.
The bank didn’t cave, explaining that legislators should decide gun control issues, not financial institutions.
“Wells Fargo wants schools and communities to be safe from gun violence, but changes to laws and regulations should be determined through a legislative process that gives the American public an opportunity to participate,” the bank said at the time. “We remain firm in our belief that the American public does not want banks to decide which legal products consumers can and cannot buy.”
When contacted by Bloomberg for this most recent story, the bank issued the exact same statement.
SEE ALSO: Louisiana Halts $600 Million Deal with Banks over Corporate Gun Control
Ruger hasn’t said how they plan to use the additional funds, and they didn’t respond to a request for comment. But investors backing the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility hope the gunmaker will use the $40 million to pay for research into smart guns.
“In being optimistic we would really hope that a line of credit this large would be put to good use in really answering that call to have the gun manufacturers be a part of the solution to the increasing problem of gun violence in America,” Laura Krausa, an investor in Sturm Ruger through the nonprofit Catholic Health Initiatives, told Bloomberg.
Wells Fargo has issued $431 million in credit to gunmakers since 2012. This stands in stark contrast to other financial institutions like Citigroup and Bank of America that have pulled their funding to gun companies following the Parkland massacre.
i could not have said it better, Thank You
i think the nuns should mine their own business and go to the bad neighborhoods and take guns away from criminals instead of honest gun manufactures.
I see all these people wanting gun control etc. I also see no one noticing that gun laws only affect law biding citizens because we are the only ones who buy our guns legally. Once all the gun control people realize these laws will only effectively destroy the law biding citizens rights to protect themselves and family for the simple fact that all criminals and people mostly doing gun included crime have purchased their guns off street venders and not legally. When will these people wake up and see that people who are criminals don’t want their names behind the guns they use so they buy them illegally. And for you to actually believe that the minute a law biding citizen effecting law were to be passed that the criminals will say oh man damn now I can’t use my guns no more to COMMIT MY CRIMES will actually effect criminals. You can walk over to a mirror and call yourself a complete idiot. Hello these people commit crimes do you really think another law will stop them from breaking the laws that are already in place and another law?????? If you also think that will you can again walk over to a mirror look at it call yourself a complete moron and an idiot!!!!! WAKE THE HELL UP DUMMIES!!!!!! Criminals aren’t gonna say son of a bia man this new law won’t let me use an AK 47 or an AR 15 shit I better get rid of the guns I purchased illegally cause I don’t want to break another law that’s one to many laws for me to break. Seriously these people are criminals they break laws for a living!!!!! WAKE UP IDIOTS!!!! And yes I’m calling people names because ignorance is and illness and becomes a pandemic when people don’t use the brains god gave them to figure out simple facts!!!!! Laws only effect people who follow them not those who break them for a living period!!!!!! If you read this whole post thank you very much for taking the time to read facts. And to those who think laws crushing law biding citizens constitutional rights to protect themselves and their family from the law breaking part of our society is the way to go. Your just giving the criminals the upper hand because the lawful citizens won’t have the equipment needed to protect themselves from the criminals who can get those hard core weapons with ease from the streets!!!!!! Think before you speak. Think before you react! One of these days you never know if one of the law biding citizens will be armed and help you out in a situation where one of those criminals prey on you!!!!!
Wow, Don’t have a Wells Fargo in my town, But may go find one and start doing banking online.
Thanks Wells Fargo for supporting gun rights and the 2nd Amendment!!
Interesting how the Church/nuns have allowed the Alinsky Marxist tactics of infiltrating the church to win over orthodox theology. Being a priest myself, Augustine himself wrote on the illusions of a utopia because it relies on the ego denying the dark side of human nature (revealed with the manipulative violence of the left) instead of a Rule of Law that maintains boundaries. The violation of the boundaries do not mean the rule of law is defunct but that the spiritual life of those who violate the boundaries are in question. The nuns have forgotten their tradition. Firearms in the hands of law biding citizens save more lives than those who criminally take them. The unmanipulated stats (Lott) prove this. Hugo of St. Vincent wrote that we live on a human level, reason level and divine level. The heresy here (shades of Manichaeism) is that suffering is either denied by progressive Marxists (utopia facade for concealing power) or they have to try to control it themselves (e.g. gun control that does not work masked deceitfully as confiscation) Not allowing a person to protect the self or innocent from a perpetrator (The Founders included the government on the list of potential perpetrators) violates the baptismal covenant vow of respecting the dignity and God given liberty of the other.
Spread this information around.
I have a aunt who is a nun. The nuns have become very liberal. The gun maker is not the problem. The gun is a tool. It is the person behind the gun. The country morals and value for human life has went out the window. Maybe these nuns should go do their mission work and try to help the people who are causing the problems. These anti gun idiots always want to blame the gun and the honest gun owners.
When a group or groups target business because they don’t like what they do or stand for, it becomes mob bullying.
Liberals have made it a “free for all” when attacking issues they don’t agree with. The only way to stand up to a bully is to do what Wells Fargo did. Bullys tend to slither away when confronted or ignored, we need to stand our ground.
Wow! Thanks, Wells-Fargo!
The Catholic Church has ongoing worldwide problems with pedophile clergy and a history of partnerships with fascist European governments in Germany, Italy, Hungary, Spain, Croatia, France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria along with Chile, Brazil and former US ally Chiang Kai-shek’s Rep. of China. Those nuns are rather dim bulbs to be lecturing legitimate businesses.
Well, I am relieved. Been with Wells Fargo for decades and it would have been a pain to change all my accounts.
Well done Wells Fargo!
Great to see! But let’s see if this can become a trend. Right now, Wells Fargo needs all the business (and advertising) they can get, being that they’re desperately trying to redeem themselves after some seriously corrupt business tactics.
…this from the religion that molested how many children? Yay snowflakes…where’s that middle finger emoji?
Nuns should be concerned with the eternal souls of their flock. This is a political issue and they should keep their noses out of politics. The Roman Catholic church has a long and sordid history of involvement with politics and affairs of state…and that should be kept in the past.And if they\’re going to get involved in \”saving lives\” then they can start with abortion…unless of course they don\’t subscribe to the teachings of their very own faith. More lives are taken by abortion than guns…in fact far more. Why is it that Roman Catholic clergy from western countries is made up of a disproportionate percentage of leftist agitators?
Why would any corporation take political sides on any issue ? It does help me make choices though….
I buy New Balance instead of Nike, walk past the Levi’s aisle when I need jeans, anything sports is anywhere but Dick’s…. maybe I’ll check out Wells Fargo’s products…..
and maybe I’ll take the money that was supposed to go in the plate on Sun morning and send it to a non-political charity.
Most nuns aren’t holy anymore. They care more about being good democrats than the unborn. They are little more than social activists–rabblerousers.
Good point. Maybe the nuns should be focusing on Planned Parenthood and the Democratic party not to mention the problems within the Catholic Church itself.
Guns made America, and guns will keep America free from foreign invasion after our government spends all of us into the poor house.
Look around you. We have been, and are still being invaded as past and present US administrations do nothing to stop it. The US Census Bureau stated a few months ago there are now 22 million illegals in the US and thousands more piling in every month.