Gun sellers in the government's crosshairs

From Rick Moran at The American Thinker Blog:

The Justice Department calls it "Operation Choke Point" and it's causing perhaps hundreds of gun shops and manufacturers across the country a lot of inconvenience and lost profits.

It seems that the FDIC issued orders in 2011 that forced banks to scrutinize "high risk" businesses like gun stores, porn shops, and drug paraphenalia outlets. The result was that lines of credit, credit card transaction processing, and even bank accounts have all come under attack by banks scared to do business with gun stores. ................

Individual banks are denying any targeting by industry, but the banker's trade association makes it clear what's going on:

"We're being threatened with a regulatory regime that attempts to foist on us the obligation to monitor all types of transactions," Richard Riese, a senior vice president at the American Bankers Association, said in the April 28 issue of American Banker. "All of this is predicated on a notion that the banks are a choke point for all businesses."

In an interview with The Times, Mr. Riese said the cost of doing business with gun retailers outweighs the benefits for some banks, given that regulators deem the industry as "risky," state laws vary on the sale of guns and ammunition, and the Justice Department's enforcement.

Gun control by stealth. Unelected bureaucrats taking the law into their own hands to stifle an industry that is selling a product with which they disagree. It doesn't get much worse than that as far as a misuse of power.

Since the can't pass a law and lost at SCOTUS, they are going to try a regulate sellers out of business.