Wall Street banks have been caught in the US debate over firearms as a handful of states consider policies limiting government business with firms that restrict the gun industry. The pending California legislation is the opposite of a 2021 law passed in Texas that bars most government contracts there with companies that curb their business with the gun industry.
California issuers sold $46 billion of municipal bonds in 2022, following $84 billion in 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The proposal comes just weeks after two mass shootings in California left 18 people dead and a spree at Michigan State University that killed three students. “Michigan State. Half Moon Bay. Monterey Park. And on and on and on. There is no place in America that is safe from the epidemic of gun violence,” Senator Dave Min, the author of the bill, said in a press release. “And unfortunately, this epidemic is being bankrolled by financial institutions that have turned a blind eye towards the horrors that their investments in the gun industry have created.”