When any public company decides to focus not on its core area of business, but on re-making society in a way senior management envisions, investors should run for the hills.
“Citigroup has no business threatening law-abiding business owners for exercising their Second Amendment rights,” (Justin) Danhof told (Citibank) CEO Michael Corbat and the company’s board. The attorney backed up his argument with statements from (Warren) Buffett, the CEO nicknamed the “Oracle of Omaha,” who said he wouldn’t force his own Democratic viewpoints on Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate he formed that controls businesses from fast-food chain Dairy Queen to auto-insurer Geico.
“I don’t think that we should have a question on the Geico policyholder form, ‘Are you an NRA member?'” Buffett told investors at Berkshire’s annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, in May. “And if you are, you just aren’t good enough for us or something.’ I think I do not believe in imposing my political opinions on the activities of our businesses.”
That’s not how Citi, which doesn’t include Berkshire among its investors, views its policy, Corbat told Danhof.
“We are not threatening people, and we are certainly not threatening the Second Amendment,” the CEO said, noting that customers are free to buy whatever they want with their credit and debit cards, including firearms. “What our policy seeks to do is not put restrictions on gun ownership, but really try and institute a series of best practices that have, hopefully, a chance of keeping guns out of the wrong people’s hands. We’ve worked with a number of retailers to come up with what we think some of those best practices are.”
– James Langford in Citi’s gun crackdown gives ammo to 2nd Amendment foes, advocate says
