Some good stuff in the comments section.

---------------------------------------------------

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ge-capital-cuts-off-lending-to-gun-shops-201...


GE Capital cuts off lending to gun shops

By Joe Palazzolo and Kate Linebaugh

General Electric Co. is quietly cutting off lending to gun shops, as the company rethinks its relationship to firearms amid the fallout from the school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

This month, Glenn Duncan, owner of Duncan’s Outdoor Store in Bay City, Mich., said he received a letter from GE Capital Retail Bank in which the lender said it had made “the difficult decision” to stop providing financing services to his store. Other gun dealers have received similar notices.

GE is at least the second big financial firm to retreat from the gun business following the school shootings, which claimed the lives of 20 first-graders and six adults in December.

Reuters Enlarge Image
GE is the second big financial firm to retreat from the gun business since the Newtown, Conn., shooting.

Days after the killings, private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP said it would try to sell the gun company it owns -- Freedom Group Inc. -- which makes brands including Remington, Bushmaster, Marlin and H&R.

The moves highlight how companies, closely attuned to the concerns of investors and employees, have reacted to public horror caused by the attacks, even as complicated political considerations doomed new gun-control legislation in the Congress.

Many of GE’s employees live around Newtown and several have children in the Sandy Hook elementary school, where the shootings took place. Peter Lanza, the father of Sandy Hook gunman Adam Lanza, is an executive at GE Capital. GE Chief Executive Jeff Immelt held a town-hall meeting with affected employees after the shooting, and the board has been updated on efforts to help staff, a person familiar with the matter said.