In Anti-Gun Climate, General Electric Halts All Financing For Gun Purchases

General Electric has stopped financing gun purchases --- apparent fallout from the contentious debate over gun ownership that's gripped the country since the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Conn. last December.

GE Capital Finance actually ceased providing consumer financing for new gun-shop customers in 2008, but only recently extended the policy to existing customers, according to a report by USA Today.

The decision affects fewer than 75 retailers, which GE says is about .001% of all gun retailers.

The company implemented the new policy "in light of industry changes, new legislation and tragic events that have caused widespread reexamination of policies on firearms," GE Capital spokesman Russell Wilkerson said in an e-mail. He added loans to gun customers are "an immaterial part of our sales volume."

Some of the nation's largest lenders don't finance gun purchases.

Wells Fargo stopped financing gun sales back in 2004 for business reasons, company spokeswoman Lisa Westerman said, and Citigroup also doesn't finance firearm loans, said spokeswoman Liz Fogarty.

Bank of America declined to say whether it provides consumer financing for firearms.

GE Capital's new policy affects only retailers that sell firearms exclusively, not general merchandise stores, like Wal-Mart, which sell guns, as well as other products.

Some stores that have changed their product focus in recent years to just firearms will be cut off from financing under the new policy, Wilkerson said.

John Meek, owner of Midwestern Firearms of East Peoria, Ill., which offers non-financed layaway plans for customers, was quoted by USA Today saying GE Capital's financing decision is "an injustice as far as their thinking goes - blaming the instrument rather than the perpetrator."

GE is based in Fairfield, Conn., not far from Newtown, where lone gunman Adam Lanza killed 27, including 20 children and his mother, before killing himself. Lanza's father, Peter, is an executive for GE.

Other companies are backing away from the gun business after the Sandy Hook tragedy, including private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, which has indicated it wants to sell Freedom Group, which manufactures Remingtons, Bushmasters, Marlins, H&R and other noted firearm brands.