Brian Brooks, former acting Comptroller of the Currency during the Trump administration, said the head of “one of the two largest banks in the United States” was considering a ban on gun purchases using the bank’s debit and credit cards. Brooks convinced the bank CEO to not go ahead with the move.

Why should we care?
Brooks’s anecdote, which he shared at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition Just Economy conference, suggests how close the financial sector has come to regulating gun sales without government direction. Brooks said he told the CEO that such a move would unreasonably control how consumers spend their money. “It’s their own money. You can’t tell them what to buy if it doesn’t violate the law,” he said. “What’s next, you don’t like me reading a right-wing magazine or a left-wing magazine?” The unnamed bank (most likely JPMorgan Chase or Bank of America) did this 180° before the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, which has renewed calls for the financial sector to step in where federal regulation doesn’t. Big banks clearly understand the role they can play in gun-control measures, but seem cautious about stepping on consumers’ toes, especially if gun-rights activists accuse these banks of violating their constitutional rights.