{"id":116750,"date":"2026-05-13T21:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T02:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=116750"},"modified":"2026-05-13T21:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T02:50:16","slug":"116750","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=116750","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Why Does Capital One Consider Lawful Gun Sales to be a \u2018Prohibited Industry\u2019?<\/a><\/p>\n

Capital One, the corporate banking giant, has an advertising tagline that asks, \u201cWhat\u2019s in your wallet?<\/a><\/strong>\u201d For one Maryland gun shop, the answer to that question appears to be a banking giant that ignores a\u00a0White House executive order<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and dismisses\u00a0Treasury Department regulations<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0that forbid banking discrimination.<\/p>\n

Capital One Financial Corporation has been in business since 1994 and the McLean, Va., international banking giant with over $475 billion in assets boasts that it offers credit cards, auto loans, checking and savings accounts and commercial banking services. That is, unless the customer happens to be a firearm retailer.<\/p>\n

Just ask Jonathan Bennett, owner of United Gun Shop in Rockville, Md. Bennett tried using Capital One\u2019s payment platform, administered by Melio Payments, for business and billing transactions. The firearm retailer had previously used the payment platform without issue. That changed on April 11, 2025, when Bennett met with Capital One after services were cancelled without notice. That cost Bennett\u2019s business $75,000 in damages and disrupted services.<\/p>\n

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According to reporting by\u00a0The Daily Wire<\/a><\/strong>, Bennett was surprised to learn that his business \u2014 legally selling firearms to law-abiding citizens \u2014 was considered to be in a \u201cprohibited industry\u201d by the big bank.<\/p>\n

Bennett\u2019s not rolling over on the illegal de-banking. He\u2019s making Capital One and Melio Payments answer in court. His\u00a0lawsuit alleges<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0the two banking service providers blocked United Gun Shop from \u201cmaking future payments\u201d before disabling the business from completing payment transactions.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an American-owned small business operating legally, we were shocked when Capital One abruptly stopped processing our payments without any clear explanation and instead cited vague reasons tied to a third-party payment provider we never agreed to work with,\u201d Bennett\u00a0told The Daily Wire<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cWe filed this lawsuit to hold Capital One and its third-party partner accountable for what we believe is unfair discrimination against our company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capital One pointed the finger at Melio Payments for the prohibited banking discrimination decision. Melio Payments claimed they did nothing wrong and didn\u2019t respond to follow-up questions from The Daily Wire. Capital One, likewise, didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Bringing the Receipts<\/h5>\n

But United Gun Shop has the receipts. Three days after meeting with Capital One when the business was de-banked, Melio Payments told United Gun Shop that it belonged to a prohibited industry, despite several payments having already been processed starting in December 2024 before those payments were cut off in March 2025. Capital One Business confirmed to Bennet that his business didn\u2019t meet \u201celigibility criteria\u201d and \u201cyour business is considered a restricted industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s going to be a problem for Capital One and Melio Payments. In August 2025, President Donald Trump issued the\u00a0executive order guaranteeing free and fair banking for all Americans<\/a><\/strong>. That\u00a0ended banking discrimination<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0against individuals and entities based on political beliefs.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t end there. The agency that regulates banks, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency,\u00a0issued preliminary findings<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in December, 2025 that revealed what the firearm industry has known and experienced for years. Large banks systematically \u201cmade inappropriate distinctions<\/strong><\/a>\u201d of lawful businesses, including those against firearm-related businesses, to restrict access to banking services.<\/p>\n

Capital One was among those corporate banking giants that had been unlawfully discriminating against certain industries, including the firearm industry, based on politics.<\/p>\n

Banking Regulators Step In<\/h5>\n

The OCC issued a\u00a0final rule<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0just last month codifying the elimination of \u201creputational risk\u201d from their supervisory programs. The OCC\u00a0explained<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0that the final rule defines \u201creputational risk\u201d and prohibits the OCC and FDIC from criticizing or taking adverse action against an institution on the basis of reputation risk.<\/p>\n

The rule also prohibits the agencies from requiring, instructing or encouraging an institution to close customer accounts or take other actions on the basis of a person or entity\u2019s political, social, cultural or religious views or beliefs, constitutionally protected speech or solely on the basis of politically disfavored but lawful business activities perceived to present a \u201creputation risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

That rule applies to the federal agencies. However, the OCC put teeth into the new policy when it gave bank customers, including firearm industry members, a clearer path to document politicized de-banking and enter those concerns into the regulatory record.<\/p>\n

The OCC\u00a0issued public comment guidance<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0offering bank customers and stakeholders a way they may share debanking experiences with the OCC and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and those complaints may be considered when the agency reviews bank licensing filings. They may also be considered during Community Reinvestment Act examinations.<\/p>\n

The OCC\u2019s\u00a0guidance<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0states the agency will consider whether a bank has terminated individual customer accounts or categories of customer accounts, or refused to provide financial services to a person or category of persons, without assessing individual customer risk on a case-by-case basis. The OCC further states it may deny or condition approval of a licensing proposal by a bank with a record of politicized or unlawful debanking.<\/p>\n

That is exactly the type of accountability the firearm industry has demanded and worked for years to generate.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also the sort of accountability that Capital One can expect if they continue to illegally discriminate against firearm businesses for being in a \u201cprohibited industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capital One, at the same time, will have to attempt to tell a court that \u201cWhat\u2019s in your wallet?\u201d is actually illegal banking discrimination when it answers a judge over United Gun Shop\u2019s allegations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why Does Capital One Consider Lawful Gun Sales to be a \u2018Prohibited Industry\u2019? Capital One, the corporate banking giant, has an advertising tagline that asks, \u201cWhat\u2019s in your wallet?\u201d For one Maryland gun shop, the answer to that question appears to be a banking giant that ignores a\u00a0White House executive order\u00a0and dismisses\u00a0Treasury Department regulations\u00a0that forbid … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-question-o-the-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116751,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116750\/revisions\/116751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}