NSSF Weighs In on Maryland Gun Shop’s Lawsuit Over Banking Services Denial

A few years ago, it seemed like a week didn’t go by when I didn’t write about someone in the gun industry being deplatformed by their bank. This was an incredibly common occurrence, spurred on by New York state officials’ hostility toward the right to keep and bear arms. Since New York City is the financial capital of the world, those officials seemed to scare bankers into playing ball.

But that was then, this is now. Since then, major steps have been undertaken to try to prevent that from happening.

Unfortunately, we now know that Capital One either didn’t get the memo or simply refused to read it.

As this impacts the entire industry, it’s no surprise that the National Shooting Sports Foundation is weighing in on this.

“As 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,” United Gun Shop owner Jonathan Bennett told The Daily Wire. “We filed this lawsuit to hold Capital One and its third-party partner accountable for what we believe is unfair discrimination against our company.”

Capital One pointed the finger at Melio Payments for the prohibited banking discrimination decision. Melio Payments claimed they did nothing wrong and didn’t respond to follow-up questions from The Daily Wire. Capital One, likewise, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Bringing the Receipts

But United Gun Shop has the receipts. Three days after meeting with Capital One when the business was debanked, 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’t meet “eligibility criteria” and “your business is considered a restricted industry.”

That’s going to be a problem for Capital One and Melio Payments. In August 2025, President Donald Trump issued the Executive Order Guaranteeing Free and Fair Banking for All Americans. That ended banking discrimination against individuals and entities based on political beliefs. It didn’t end there. The agency that regulates banks, The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), issued preliminary findings in December 2025 that revealed what the firearm industry has known, and experienced, for years. Large banks systematically “made inappropriate distinctions” of lawful businesses, including those against firearm-related businesses, to restrict access to banking services.

Capital One was among those corporate banking giants unlawfully discriminating against certain industries, including the firearm industry, for political reasons.

Now, freedom of association is a thing. It should be a case where a company can simply refuse to do business with another industry that doesn’t line up with its values, and that business is free to seek services elsewhere. The problem is that banking is a critical need for every industry in this day and age, and this problem spanned the entire financial industry when we were last talking about it. That’s why someone had to put a stop to it, hence the EO.

Now, if it’s Melio Payments, then they should be held accountable. If it’s really Capital One, then they should be held accountable instead.

While I’ve got some Capital One credit cards in my wallet, I’m holding off until we get a definitive answer as to who made what decision before I toss them, but they’re not getting used for a damn thing until I get that answer, either.

However, it looks to me like both are responsible, and so I’ll be looking elsewhere for credit card services in the very near future, and I’d advise you to do the same.

It’s funny, though. Bankers are typically portrayed in film and television as amoral monsters who are just looking at the bottom line and nothing else, and while the people who frame them that way likely love this, they’re actually being the amoral monsters this time around.

For me, this will be a watch-and-wait situation, but I know which way this is likely to go, and I’m ready to cut all of my ties with Capital One just as soon as it’s confirmed in court.

Or, they could step up and restore services, offer some restitution, and make damn sure it never happens again. Then, I might still use their cards from time to time.

Might.

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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