Citigroup Acted. Now, Two New Ideas on How Banks Can Limit Gun Sales.
But what we did say — in terms of the people that Citi is going to do business with, the ones
that we’re going to finance and that we’re going to, in essence, put our brands together on — that there needs to be something that makes sense for us and for both sides.”
He said the bank had purposely left some of its policy ambiguous so it could accommodate
potential exceptions — for example, to the 21-year-old age limit.
If the credit card companies and banks agreed, they could come up with a series of subcodes
that would identify retailers that sold guns under a “best practices” policy — like the policy that Citigroup proposed or the one that Walmart and Dick’s follow — and the ones that don’t.
Mr. Corbat had taken the remarkable step on Thursday of authorizing a new set of rules to restrict gun sales by
Citi’s clients, the first time a Wall Street bank had used its position to influence the gun control debate.
The focus on raising the age of gun buyers to 21 is not random: Individuals ages 18 to 20 commit homicides using guns at
a rate that’s four times higher than the rate for those over 21, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, using F. B.I.
(Perhaps the bank that’s least receptive to addressing the issue of guns is Wells Fargo, which has said it should be approached through the “political
and legislative process.” Wells Fargo is the largest financier in the nation of the gun industry and is the main bank for the National Rifle Association, according to Bloomberg.)