A vice chairwoman at Bank of America said Tuesday that the financial services giant will no longer lend money to manufacturers of "military-style firearms."
"We want to contribute in any way we can to reduce these mass shootings," Anne Finucane said on Bloomberg TV. "We do have a few manufacturers of military-style firearms. We're in discussions with them. We have let them know that we are going to—it's not our intent to underwrite or finance military-style firearms on a go-forward basis."
When asked whether Bank of America will take the same actions with retailers who sell such weapons, Finucane said that is "a ways off" because of "civil liberties" and the Second Amendment.
"For us, we have just a handful of manufacturers, they know what our intentions are, we have had intense conversations over the last few months, and it's our intention not to finance these military-style firearms for civilian use," Finucane added.
The vice chairwoman said that Bank of America has received a "mixed" reaction from these clients but refused to elaborate further.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a leading gun industry trade group, criticized the bank's decision, saying it is wrong to deem semi-automatic rifles long available to civilians to be military-style weapons, Bloomberg reported.
"We as an industry would welcome the opportunity to sit down with Bank of America executives and explain our industry's perspective to discuss what really would work to keep firearms out of the hands of those who should not have them," said Michael Bazinet, a spokesman for the NSSF. "We should be part of the discussion."
Finucane also told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday that Bank of America is working to further reduce its work with coal companies and put that money into renewable energy.