TD Bank targeted in U.S. gun control debate

Chicago mayor to institution: Stop lending money to Smith & Wesson

WASHINGTON • The TD Bank suddenly found itself in the cross-hairs of the high-calibre political debate over gun control after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel sent a letter to the bank’s U.S. subsidiary asking it to stop lending money to gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson because the company doesn’t support gun controls.

“TD Bank currently aids the gun manufacturing industry through a $60-million revolving line of credit with Smith & Wesson, a gun manufacturer that produces the AR-15 — an assault weapon that was used by James Holmes to kill 12 people and wound 58 in a crowded movie theatre in Aurora,” Emanuel’s letter to TD CEO Bharat Masrani states. “I ask you to use your influence to push this company to find common ground with the vast majority of Americans who support a military weapons and ammunition ban and comprehensive background checks.”

TD Bank official Rebecca Acededo told Postmedia “we respectfully decline to comment” on Emanuel’s letter.

Emanuel also sent a similar letter to the number two financial institution in the U.S., Bank of America, requesting that it withdraw its $25-million letter of credit to gun maker Sturm, Ruger & Company Inc.

The firms are two of America’s largest gun makers. Among their arsenals a series of semi-automatic AR15 assault rifles similar to the Bushmaster used in the massacre Dec. 14 of 20 elementary schoolchildren and six educators at Sandy Hook School in Newtown, Conn. They manufacture the auto-loading rifles under the names M&P 15 and SR-556. Both companies offer 10- or 30-round clips.

This is the type of semi-automatic assault weapon and high-capacity magazine that U.S. President Barack Obama wants congress to ban. He is up against stubborn opposition from the four-million-strong members of the National Rifle Association as well as a majority of Republicans and some Democrats.

Since the Sandy Hook massacre, the stock in both companies has risen as sales in assault weapons have skyrocketed. Smith & Wesson’s stock last year out-paced the Dow Jones Industrial Average by about 150 per cent.

Some cities including Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles announced Monday they will divest their pension funds of shares in gun makers.

The National Conference of Democratic Mayors, which purchases firearms and ammunition for their police departments, warned gun makers earlier this month they would not buy weapons from manufacturers who do not support the president’s gun control measures and favour those manufacturers who comply with gun safety measures.

“We’re going to do everything we can as mayors to use ... the collective buying power of many millions of dollars in guns and ammunition, to support those who will support common-sense laws and oppose those who are fighting us in Congress,” Minneapolis Mayor Raymond Rybak told the Washington publication Politico earlier this month. “I am not going to have the people, the taxpayers of Minneapolis, pay for people to stop the Congress from passing laws that keep our people safe.”