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Banks and Guns: Social Activism Following the Parkland, Florida Shooting Erin A NORTH CAROLINA BANKING INSTITUTE Volume 23 | Issue 1 Article 25 3-1-2019 Banks and Guns: Social Activism Following the Parkland, Florida Shooting Erin A. Catlett Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/ncbi Part of the Banking and Finance Law Commons Recommended Citation Erin A. Catlett, Banks and Guns: Social Activism Following the Parkland, Florida Shooting, 23 N.C. Banking Inst. 507 (2019). Available at: https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/ncbi/vol23/iss1/25 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by Carolina Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in North Carolina Banking Institute by an authorized editor of Carolina Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BANKS AND GUNS: SOCIAL ACTIVISM FOLLOWING THE PARKLAND, FLORIDA SHOOTING I. INTRODUCTION In the wake of the significant number of recent mass shootings in our country, social activism on the part of corporate America is on the rise in an attempt to bring about change in the legislature regarding gun control.1 Following a deadly school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in February 2018, several fi- nancial institutions, including a handful of banks—Bank of America, Citigroup, and JP Morgan Chase—unveiled new policies affecting their relationships and activities with gun manufacturers and retailers.2 This Note examines the policies put in place by these financial institutions and the response by the gun industry. Additionally, it surveys the arguments from both sides and whether or not courts would be likely to find that the policies violate the right to bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment. This Note argues that the banks’ policies are not in violation of the Second Amendment despite harsh criticism from gun ad- vocates and that the banks are permitted to institute such policies. While subject to extensive federal regulation, there are no regulations prevent- ing banks from implementing these corporate social responsibility poli- cies. Part II discusses the mass shooting epidemic that has occurred in the United States over the last several decades and outlines statistics 1. Lisa Marie Pane, Banks Endanger 2nd Amendment Freedoms, Gun Rights Advocates Say, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (June 24, 2018, 11:07 AM), https://www.reviewjour- nal.com/news/nation-and-world/banks-endanger-2nd-amendment-freedoms-gun-rights-ad- vocates-say/ (addressing how corporate America, including banks and retailers have “tak[en] a stand against the firearms industry amid a lack of action by lawmakers on gun control”) [hereinafter Banks Endanger 2nd Amendment]. 2. Alan Rappeport, Banks Tried to Curb Gun Sales. Now Republicans Are Trying to Stop Them, N.Y. TIMES (May 25, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/25/us/poli- tics/banks-gun-sales-republicans.html (addressing the policy implemented by Citigroup); Kevin McCoy & Adam Shell, Gun Clients and Banks: JPMorgan Limits Firearms Clients, Wells Fargo Keeps Them, USA TODAY (Apr. 13, 2018), https://www.usato- day.com/story/money/2018/04/13 /jpmorgan-chase-limits-business-gunmakers-while-wells-fargo-continues/515430002/ (dis- cussing JPMorgan adding limits to the gunmakers with which they are currently doing busi- ness). 508 NORTH CAROLINA BANKING INSTITUTE [Vol. 23 related to guns in the United States.3 Part III provides the framework for the Second Amendment and how courts have addressed the right to bear arms since the Framers authored the Constitution.4 Additionally, Part III briefly discusses the structure of the current law regarding the sale of fire- arms.5 Part IV discusses both the social activist response by corporate America, including financial institutions in the wake of these recent mass shootings, and the response from the gun industry.6 Part V addresses whether the gun control policies set forth by banks violate the Second Amendment or federal bank regulations and discusses the role of banks’ corporate social responsibility in implementing such policies as a reflec- tion of the desires of the shareholders and consumers in the marketplace.7 Additionally, Part VI concludes this Note with a reminder of the personal nature of the gun control debate and roles banks may play in generating real change.8 II. MASS SHOOTINGS IN THE UNITED STATES Mass shootings are becoming all too commonplace.9 Most often, these occur in public places, claiming victims who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.10 These victims range in age from unborn children to those approaching the century mark, coming from “nearly every imaginable race, religion and socioeconomic background.”11 The types of guns used in the shootings vary from handguns to semi-auto- matic rifles.12 Many of the notable mass shootings over the last twenty 3. See infra Part II. 4. See infra Part III. 5. See infra Part III. 6. See infra Part IV. 7. See infra Part V. 8. See infra Part VI. 9. See Michael Hiltzik, If You Think Mass Shootings Are Becoming More Frequent, and Worse¾You’re Right, L.A. TIMES (Nov. 20, 2017, 10:10 AM), http://www.latimes.com/busi- ness/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-mass-shootings-20171120-story.html (describing the increase in fre- quency in the number of mass shootings occurring in the United States). 10. Bonnie Berkowitz et al., The Terrible Numbers That Grow with Each Mass Shooting, WASH. POST (Dec. 7, 1993, updated Sept. 14, 2018), https://www.washing- tonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/mass-shootings-in-america/?noredi- rect=on&utm_term=.873421006b54 (“The places change, the numbers change, but the choice of weapon remains the same. In the United States, people who want to kill a lot of other people most often do it with guns.”). 11. Id. 12. Id. 2019] BANKS AND GUNS 509 years include the Columbine High School Shooting in 1999,13 the Vir- ginia Tech Massacre in 2007,14 the Fort Hood shooting in 2009,15 the Ga- brielle Giffords shooting in 2011,16 the Aurora Movie Theater Shooting in 2012,17 the Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting in 2012,18 the Charles- ton, South Carolina church shooting in 2015,19 the San Bernardino shoot- ing in 2015,20 the Orlando Night Club Shooting in 2016,21 the Las Vegas Shooting in 2017,22 the Texas Church Shooting in 2017,23 and most re- cently as of this writing in the Fall of 2018, the shootings at the Tree of 13. Los Angeles Times Staff, Deadliest U.S. Mass Shootings 1984-2017, L.A. TIMES (Oct. 2, 2017), http://timelines.latimes.com/deadliest-shooting-rampages/ (describing the timeline of mass shootings occurring in the Unites States over the last few decades including the Columbine High School shooting, where two students killed twelve fellow students and a teacher and injured twenty-four others before taking their own lives). 14. See Emily Cohen, Va. Tech Shooter Seung-Hui Cho’s Mental Health Records Re- leased, ABC NEWS (Aug. 19, 2009), https://abcnews.go.com/US/seung-hui-chos-mental- health-records-released/story?id=8278195 (discussing the mental health records released in connection with the Virginia Tech Massacre gunman); see also Los Angeles Times Staff, supra note 13 (describing the Virginia Tech Massacre, where a college student killed thirty- two students and injured seventeen others, ending the rampage by taking his own life). 15. Los Angeles Times Staff, supra note 13 (describing the Fort Hood shooting involving an Army psychiatrist, with alleged Muslim extremist ties, who shot and killed thirteen and injured thirty-two people). 16. Los Angeles Times Staff, supra note 13 (describing the shooting where U.S. House of Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot but survived at a rally in her home state; six more were left dead and ten others were injured). 17. Los Angeles Times Staff, supra note 13 (describing the Aurora, Colorado movie the- ater shooting where a lone gunman entered a crowded movie theater, opened fire, and killed twelve individuals and injured fifty-eight). 18. Los Angeles Times Staff, supra note 13 (describing another devastating school shoot- ing occurring in Newtown, Connecticut, when a lone gunman, allegedly suffering from men- tal issues, entered Sandy Hook Elementary and killed twenty children and seven adults). 19. Los Angeles Times Staff, supra note 13 (describing the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church shooting where a suspected white supremacist shot and killed nine wor- shippers in Charleston, South Carolina). 20. Los Angeles Times Staff, supra note 13 (describing the San Bernardino shooting where a married couple opened fire on a holiday party in San Bernardino, killing fourteen and injuring twenty-two individuals). 21. Los Angeles Times Staff, supra note 13 (describing the shooting at the Pulse Night Club in Orlando, Florida, where a lone gunman killed forty-nine and injured fifty-eight when he opened fire in a crowded night club). 22. Los Angeles Times Staff, supra note 13 (describing the Las Vegas Shooting, where a gunman opened fire on a country music festival, shooting from the thirty-second floor of a nearby hotel, killing fifty and injuring more than 500 concert-goers). 23. Dakin Andone et al., At Least 26 People Killed in Shooting at Texas Church, CNN (Nov. 6, 2017 4:20 AM), https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/05/us/texas-church-shooting/in- dex.html (describing the church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, where a shooter, a former member of the military, entered Sunday worship and killed twenty-six people and injured twenty others before taking his own life). 510 NORTH CAROLINA BANKING INSTITUTE [Vol. 23 Life Jewish Synagogue in Pittsburgh24
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