Precision Rifleman July 2012
Second Amendment Concerns Spark Change for McMillan Many of you have already heard about McMillan Manufacturing’s conflict with Bank of America. For those who have not, the discussion according to McMillan International was posted on their company facebook page as follows: “McMillan Fiberglass Stocks, McMillan Firearms Manufacturing and McMillan Group International have been collectively banking with Bank of America for 12 years. Today (April 19, 2012) Mr. Ray Fox, Senior Vice President, Market Manager, Business Banking, Global Commercial Banking came to my office. He scheduled the meeting as an “account analysis” meeting in order to evaluate the two lines of credit we have with them. He spent 5 minutes talking about how McMillan has changed in the last 5 years and have become more of a firearms manufacturer than a supplier of accessories. At this point I interrupted him and asked “Can I possible save you some time so that you don’t waste your breath? What you are going to tell me is that because we are in the firearms manufacturing business you no longer what my business.” “That is correct” he says. I replied “That is okay, we will move our accounts as soon as possible. We can find a 2nd Amendment friendly bank that will be glad to have our business. You won’t mind if I tell the NRA, SCI and everyone one I know that BofA is not firearms industry friendly?” “You have to do what you must” he said. “So you are telling me this is a politically motivated decision, is that right?” Mr Fox confirmed that it was. At which point I told him that the meeting was over and there was nothing left for him to say. I think it is import for all Americans who believe in and support our 2nd amendment right to keep and bear arms should know when a business does not support these rights. What you do with that knowledge is up to you. When I don’t agree with a business’ political position I cannot in good conscience support them.” Until this time, McMillan had a banking relationship in good standing. According to www.gunsandammo.com,
“Director of Operations Kelly D. McMillan said his company had been doing business with Bank of America for the last 12 years and has never been late on a payment or bounced a check. The debt outstanding on the company’s line of credit was at 61 percent as of that Friday.” BofA has since denied this claim and because the April 19th meeting occurred behind closed doors and exclusively between Kelly McMillan and Ray Fox, it is anyone’s guess as
Kelly McMillan, Director of Operations, McMillan Group International, LLC to whose report is accurate. McMillan’s has little to gain from the exposure of events except perhaps some dubious publicity; on the contrary, he now has additional work assignments in researching and establishing a financial relationship with a new institution. Furthermore, Mr. McMillan has taken the added measure of communicating the incident to the outside world via the company’s facebook page and through interviews with numerous media engagements. For the Director of Operations of a multi-million dollar business, this constitutes a large time investment and sheds light on the high priority he gives the situation. Second amendment advocates have flocked to the story and coverage has reached as far as Fox News and Glen Beck’s radio show among many notable others. People were offended at BofA’s alleged “throw-down” and viewed it as an attack on the 2nd amendment and not just an individual corporate decision. In correspondence with Mr. Mc-
Millan, his focus has been very clearly on the 2nd amendment implications and he is doing what is necessary to protect his business in response to the incident. Response was quick when the story broke. Mr. McMillan stated, “the support is overwhelmingly positive for support of our 2nd Amendment rights. People have called, emailed, posted on our face book and distributed the story to friends nationwide. The response is truly national.” In fact, in an interview on April 27, with Karen Jowers of marinecorpstimes.com, “McMillan said he’s answered nearly 1,000 emails and taken about 100 phone calls, and about “99 percent of them are supportive of me.” The week before this happened; his Facebook page had about 3,200 likes. The week following, it had more than 11,000. With all the media attention this story has received, I was curious whether the NRA had issued a position to which Mr. McMillan replied, “The last I heard their official position is that they have no official position. That is based on the idea that there is no way to prove who is telling the truth.” Mr. McMillan also stated he discussed the subject with Mr. Benito Almanza, State President of Arizona for Bank of America, whose response was basically the decision had nothing to do with being a firearms manufacturer but was based on sound banking principals. My concern with Mr. Almanza’s statement is it harkens back to the $45 billion TARP funds BofA received back in 2009. It begs the question as to where those “sound banking principals” were prior to the bailout. Furthermore, on April 27, 2012 on FoxNews.com, a BofA spokeswoman again denied McMillan’s account, saying Bank of America has never had any policies prohibiting banking or lending to clients in the firearms industry. Bank of America may have some dubious practices; however, it is my conviction that the decisions to torque McMillan’s credit lines were made by an individual employee and not a part of general corporate practice. If there are unwritcontinued on page 9