How Banks Unwittingly Finance Mass Shootings

[marble falls]

How Banks Unwittingly Finance Mass Shootings
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN Dec. 24, 2018

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/24/business/dealbook/mass-shootings-credit-cards.html

Omar Mateen used six credit cards to buy two guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition before he opened fire inside the Pulse nightclub.
Orlando, Fla. | 49 dead

James Holmes used credit to help buy more than $11,000 in guns, grenades, a gas mask and other military gear to attack a movie theater.
Aurora, Colo. | 12 dead

Stephen Paddock had two dozen guns inside the Mandalay Bay Resort when he rained fire on a music festival below. Police found four credit cards.
Las Vegas | 58 dead

The New York Times reviewed hundreds of documents including police reports, bank records and investigator notes from a decade of mass shootings. Many of the killers built their stockpiles of high-powered weapons with the convenience of credit. No one was watching.



His web browsing history chronicled his anxiety: “Credit card reports all three bureaus,” “FBI,” and “Why banks stop your purchases.”

He needn’t have worried. None of the banks, credit-card network operators or payment processors alerted law enforcement officials about the purchases he thought were so suspicious.



A New York Times examination of mass shootings since the Virginia Tech attack in 2007 reveals how credit cards have become a crucial part of the planning of these massacres. There have been 13 shootings that killed 10 or more people in the last decade, and in at least eight of them, the killers financed their attacks using credit cards. Some used credit to acquire firearms they could not otherwise have afforded.

Those eight shootings killed 217 people. The investigations undertaken in their aftermath uncovered a rich trove of information about the killers’ spending. There were plenty of red flags, if only someone were able to look for them, law enforcement experts say.





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John Shrewsberry, chief financial officer of Wells Fargo — which counts the National Rifle Association as a client — has dismissed the notion that banks should regulate the use of its credit cards for gun purchases.

“The best way to make progress on these issues is through the political and legislative process,” he said in April on a conference call with investors.

There may be good reason that no bank executive wants to talk out loud about guns: In October, Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, introduced a bill, the No Red and Blue Banks Act, which would “prohibit the federal government from giving contracts to banks that discriminate against lawful businesses based solely on social policy considerations.”

The bill was directed at banks that changed their policies regarding guns.

“Our friends at Citigroup and Bank of America apparently aren’t busy enough with their banking business; they have decided that they are going to set policy for the Second Amendment,” Mr. Kennedy wrote on Twitter.

And a policy expert at the American Civil Liberties Union recently expressed concern about how efforts to prevent mass shootings could infringe on individual rights.

“The implication of expecting the government to detect and prevent every mass shooting is believing the government should play an enormously intrusive role in American life,” Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst at the A.C.L.U. Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, wrote in July.










In 29 states, consumers cannot use credit cards to buy lottery tickets because legislators don’t want consumers wracking up debt gambling. And under the Gun Control Act of 1968, firearms dealers must report if someone buys two or more handguns in a span of five business days.

That requirement can be evaded simply by buying at more than one store, but a system involving the banks and credit card networks could have the opportunity to flag the purchases.




Olivia Carville contributed reporting. James Williamson contributed research. Design by Andrew Rossback. Graphic by Keith Collins and Troy Griggs.
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[wasupaloopa]

1. And what else do they want banks to report what we use credit for? Sounds too much like big brother

The burden should be on the gun dealer to report gun purchases by using background checks. Multiple gun purchases should be easy to detect.

[tanyev]

2. WTF? My credit card freaked out yesterday when I tried to order one pair

of ballroom dance shoes from a very reputable site in the UK.

[csziggy]

7. Yeah, I had one flag a transaction - subscription of magazine from Australia

Since that credit card company would also not allow me to talk to them - even though my husband has given verbal and written permission for me to be on the account as an equal card holder and every payment to that card has been made by me since it was opened - I cut that card up and put it away. The next two sets of cards were never activated.

Subscribing to a magazine that is published abroad but sent to a US address is not a suspicious transaction! Especially since it is arguably the best needlework magazine in the world and nothing of that quality has ever been published in the US. (Inspirations from Australia)

[GulfCoast66]

3. Think I will take a very big pass on the notion of CC companies regulating my purchases

Based on anything other than my ability to pay.

[marble falls]

4. How about banks already reporting to the governments transactions of over $10K ...

or banks locking cards with suspicious transactions?

[fescuerescue]

5. Only cash transaction above $10k

Or suspicious cash transactions.

As for locking cards that seems suspicious. That is focused on patterns. Someone who buys guns and ammo every week will never have a problem. Someone who never leaves town, but suddenly buys a gun 2,000 miles away, WITHOUT a hotel and flight charge may get locked. The bank doesn't care about the gun. They just care about getting paid back.

I once got my card locked because I shopped at Home Depot twice in one day. The second store was 150 miles from the first. I happened to be traveling home and was stopping at Home Depot and buying floor tile. First store was sold out, so I bought the rest at the next store I saw.

Bank didn't care about floor tile. But that did fit the pattern of a stolen credit card being used to exploit a weakness at dept store.

Bottom line: I'm ok with Banks protecting themselves. But I'm uncomfortable with them acting as a government agent.

[USALiberal]

6. Many people buy 100s of rounds of ammo monthly. No way to investigate all those purchases. nt