America’s 1st Freedom | Has the firearms industry been shielded from P3 loans?

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A review of files released on July 6, 2020 by the U.S. Treasury and Small Business Administration (SBA) shows that the firearms manufacturing industry was able to use the massive Payroll Protection Program (PPP) to protect only 8,727 of his jobs. The PPP is overseen by the SBA under the CARES Act and aims to help the U.S. economy weather the COVID-19 crisis in the first half of 2020.

This information comes from a press release detailing 661,218 beneficiaries of PPP loans valued at over $ 150,000. This group represents the largest loans out of more than 4.9 million loans made by the program. Of this total, only 151 of these loans went to the firearms and outdoor industries. Concretely, 7,230 jobs were retained, through 123 loans, in the firearms manufacturing sector, and 1,497 jobs, through 28 loans, were saved in the outdoor hunting services sector.

Part of the reason the small number of gunmaker jobs are protected could be discrimination from lending institutions.

A letter sent to the US Department of the Treasury, and others, by US Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Representative Richard Hudson (R-NC) on July 9 begins: “As you know, we have sent letters in our chambers respectfully requesting the Administration to take further action to clarify the eligibility of legal and law-compliant industries, including the firearms, oil and gas, coal, and private prison industries, PPP funding and other COVID-19 relief resources. The ongoing illegal discriminatory policies expressed by financial institutions and distributors of this relief prompted these letters…. It was brought to our attention that our initial concerns materialized, when several small businesses that applied for P3 funding were turned down. It became apparent during the appeal process that a financial service provider distributing federal relief has a policy that denies services to members of the gun industry. “

Overall, according to SBA records, it is estimated that PPP loans kept nearly 31.5 million workers on corporate payrolls during the first half of the year.

The information, finance, insurance, rental and leasing, professional services, management and administrative support sectors were the main recipients of financial aids, using PPP loans to maintain more than 6.4 million jobs through 160,662 loans.

The wholesale, retail, transportation and warehousing sector followed, with around 5 million jobs retained and 110,609 loans granted.

The education and health sectors were the third largest recipient of aid, retaining over $ 5.7 million through 97,603 PPP loans of over $ 150,000.

The mining, utilities and construction industries are said to have kept nearly 3.5 million people on the payroll thanks to 92,668 loans.

The US manufacturing sector, of which the firearms industry is a part, was the fifth largest recipient, retaining about 3.4 million jobs, issuing 68,643 PPP loans.

The arts and entertainment sector followed; she used these loans to save 4.5 million jobs.

The American farming community used these loans to save nearly half a million jobs, through 9,733 loans.

The dissemination of PPP data represents only 13% of the total number of loans granted under the PPP program. The remainder of the CARES Act went to 4.3 million other borrowers asking for less than $ 150,000 in government assistance.

The US gun industry has, of course, been very busy this year. Gun sales are so strong that many retailers have struggled to keep popular models in stock. Some arms manufacturers have nevertheless been affected by the mandatory shutdowns linked to this pandemic.