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A Maryland gun store, United Gun Shop of Rockville, recently filed a lawsuit alleging that Capital One, working through payment processor Melio Payments, blocked it from using the bank's platform for business transactions after flagging its operations in the firearms industry. The store received notices in 2025 and 2026 stating that Capital One and Melio could not serve businesses in that sector, according to the legal complaint.
The case has drawn attention from Consumers' Research, a conservative watchdog group, which on Thursday issued a "woke alert" highlighting the allegations against the bank.
"Capital One has been caught debanking law-abiding citizens again. It apparently isn't enough for Capital One to fund and promote racist DEI, climate activism, and extreme transgender policies; the company is also debanking its own customers simply for holding views outside leftist ideology," Consumers' Research Executive Director Will Hild said in a statement to The Daily Wire.
Capital One is among nine large banks under review by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as part of that broader inquiry, the outlet pointed out.
Capital One is also facing ongoing litigation in Florida after a federal judge in Miami dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Trump Organization accusing Capital One of politically motivated "debanking," while allowing the claims to be refiled. The suit, filed in March 2025 by the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust and affiliated entities — originally in Miami-Dade Circuit Court before being removed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida — alleges that Capital One abruptly closed hundreds of Trump-linked accounts in 2021 following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in what the Trump family has described as an act of political discrimination.
U.S. District Judge Roy Altman granted the bank's motion to dismiss on March 20, 2026, calling the original complaint deficient, yet he gave the Trump family until July 2 to file an amended version with stronger evidence. Capital One has denied any discriminatory intent and continues to defend the closures as a legitimate business decision made for legally and regulatorily permissible reasons.
Comment: In the digital era, debanking is one of the quickest and most effective ways to "un-person" an individual or a targeted group. This strategy exists not only in the U.S. but in Canada and Europe also:
- DEBANKING: Chase Bank says 'moral character' a reason why they don't do business with 'those types of people'
- Operation Choke Point 2.0: How the Feds Are Seeking to 'Debank' Targeted Industries
- Congress Investigating 'Numerous Instances' Of Banks Blacklisting Conservatives After Trump Calls Out Bank Of America CEO
- State terrorism: UK regime has 'de-banked' millions of British citizens
Think your conventional lifestyle is safe? CBDCs: A weapon for debanking the banked