‘Woke’ Discriminatory Corporate Policies Withering Away

Opinion
By Larry Keane

The idea of “woke” Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) policies continues to wither away. That’s good news for the firearm and ammunition industry, which has been the focus of corporations seeking to force public policies by the might of their corporate largess. It turns out that those lofty ideals aren’t so lofty after all. They’re more of a millstone weighing them down and more corporations are ditching their ESG programs.

BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, announced last week a cut for support of shareholder proposals for ESG initiatives to a low of 4.1 percent. That’s down from 6.7 percent in 2023 and 47 percent from 2020-2021.

“In our assessment, the majority of these (proposals) were over-reaching, lacked economic merit, or sought outcomes that were unlikely to promote long-term shareholder value,” said its “2024 Global Voting Spotlight” report, according to Reuters.

In other words, the global investment firm is telling their shareholders that “woke” ideologies don’t pay. In fact, they’re likely to cost corporations in the long run. Turns out, investors don’t want their money going to push public policies that exceed the law. They want business to be business. Public policy is best left to politicians, who voters can hold accountable at the ballot box.

Bikes and Booze

They’re not the only ones. Famed American brands are learning that “woke” policies don’t pay the bills. Harley-Davidson CEO Jochen Zeitz brought German ESG thinking to the American icon and now fans of the rumbling motorcycles are up in arms. A video of Zeitz from 2020 surfaced where he said, “We are trying to take on traditional capitalism and trying to redefine it.” Harley-Davidson responded quicker than the kill switch on their bikes and announced it was scaling back their ESG programs.

Jack Daniel’s, the iconic Tennessee whiskey distiller, found their own brand embroiled in ESG madness. Brown-Forman, the parent company, “pre-emptively announced” their ESG programs would be rolled back after their own corporate programs were exposed. Now that’s something I can toast.

NSSF has been vocal and active in eliminating ESG policies that put special-interest public policy goals ahead free market enterprise. These “woke” policies have resulted in financial and corporate discrimination against the firearm and ammunition industry. Policies adopted by nameless and faceless corporate boardrooms in Wall Street ivory towers have purposefully discriminated against firearm-related businesses all because those boardroom executives would rather cozy up to far-left gun control groups at corporate cocktail parties instead of providing fair access to businesses that make legal products that are lawfully sold.

Leading the pack on these ESG “woke” policies has been corporate financial institutions, namely, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo. Each of these corporate financial institutions embarked on “woke” corporate policies to deny firearm businesses access to financial services unless they adopted gun control policies that exceeded the law. That includes denying them banking services if they sell Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) the most popular rifle sold, standard-capacity magazines and even if they don’t refuse to sell firearms to adults under the age of 21, even though the federal law says that anyone over the age of 18 can legally purchase a long gun if they pass and FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) verification.

Fighting Back

That prompted NSSF to work with state legislatures and Congress to introduce the Firearm Industry Nondiscrimination (FIND) Act. That law was passed by nine states, with Louisiana’s Gov. Jeff Landry being the most recent governor to sign the law. That was quickly followed by Louisiana’s state Treasurer John Fleming announcing that he recommended Bank of America “not be approved as an authorized fiscal agent” for state or municipal contracts because of their discriminatory policies against firearm businesses, among other politically incurred industries.

Bank of America actually blinked on their standoff of holding to their gun control ESG policies in June. Bank of America felt the financial consequences of its gun control agenda when they found themselves shut out of state contracts, particularly in Texas and Florida, especially after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an anti-ESG law in 2023 that bars state officials from investing public money to promote “woke” initiatives like banking discrimination against the firearm industry.  Gov. DeSantis promised in an X post that he would ensure the state enforces the law against “woke” banking discrimination.

Florida has taken a strong stand against so-called ESG because it is bad for the economy, bad for freedom, and bad for constitutional accountability.

We will take action as needed to ensure the protections we’ve enacted against ESG are honored. pic.twitter.com/kmxuixMIO4

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) January 31, 2024

Bank of America announced it led to firearm companies on a case-by-case basis with “enhanced due diligence” according to the bank’s latest Environmental and Social Risk Policy (ESRP). Any tangible change in policy has yet to be seen.

The NSSF-supported FIND Act is awaiting action in Congress. Introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressman Jack Bergman (R-Mich.) as H.R. 53 with 128 co-sponsors and by U.S. Sen. Steve Daines in the Senate as S. 428 with 17 co-sponsors, the bill would bar any corporate entity that holds discriminatory policies against the firearm industry from competing for federal contracts.

Those bills are in addition to the NSSF-supported Fair Access to Banking Act, introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) as H.R. 2743 with 109 co-sponsors and the Senate by Sen. Kevin Cramer as S. 293 with 36 co-sponsors. The Fair Access to Banking Act would stop corporate banks from picking winners and losers based on executives’ personal politics. It also protects banks from outside pressure by special interest groups seeking to use the banks as a political weapon to advance their agenda.

Corporations are learning, albeit very slowly, that going “woke” means “going broke.” If corporations won’t listen to investors that discriminatory ESG policies don’t make sense – and don’t add up the cents – it’s time from Congress to follow the lead of several states that have stepped in to put an end to these discriminatory policies against the firearm and ammunition industry.

About The National Shooting Sports Foundation

NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org