Obama and Icon Bank trying to end our Business?
(Part 1 of 2)
Tactical Firearms has prided itself in being honest with our customers from our first day in business. That's why we are alerting you today to a situation that we believe to be unjust and punitive against Tactical Firearms, and this is a situation that threatens to put us out of business on July 1, 2014.
Tactical Firearms has just been given notice that our loan with Icon bank has been called in. Not because of no payment, as we have never been late or missed a payment, but because the board of directors has chosen to not renew the loan. Deciding to call a loan which has a perfect payment record and is profitable to the bank is almost unheard of in the banking industry. This is why we believe Tactical Firearms is being specifically targeted with punitive actions in an effort to put us out of business.
But there's even more to this situation that you need to know:
Back in 2012 Tactical Firearms purchased the land next to our existing facility. Icon Bank suggested an interim loan at 7% interest and then to refinance all of our loans together into one loan at a lower rate of 3.579%. At that time we had a fixed, long term loan for the building and the construction of the range. By purchasing the land, it cross collateralized the loans and put us in a situation (unknown to us at the time) that could threaten our entire business.
When it became time to refinance the loans, one of our owners (30%), Steven Coe Wilson, decided to back out. It is our belief based on what we have since learned that Steven wished to seize control of the company. We have substantial reason to believe he recruited some of our longest and hardest working employees to overbuy, to overspend, and to bury Tactical Firearms in debt to the point that we could not pay our bills. His grand plan appears to have been to swoop in and buy up the loan when the bank foreclosed on us for failure to pay. Perhaps to his disappointment, not only have we successfully paid our loan notes, we have also cut the unpaid bills by over half.
Sadly, because Steven did not sign the loan refinance that he had previously agreed to, the short term loan for the land has now matured. By default, our primary business loan is now in jeopardy.
ANTI-TRUST PRACTICES?
Further complicating this situation, it has also been brought to our attention that a member of the board of directors of Icon Bank, Mark Evans, is the owner of a new gun store in the Houston area. Based on what we've learned about this competitor, we are convinced that this bank has the intensions of forcing Tactical Firearms out of business to remove a major competitor from the market of Mr. Mark Evans' new business, Guns Over Texas. If true, we believe this would constitute unfair trade practices in the State of Texas, and we intend to pursue this matter with the office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.
Further connections support our accusations of anti-trade practices. For example, Mark Evans is the Managing Partner for Commercial Finance with the firm O'Connor, Craig, Gould & Evans - the firm that is being used by Icon Bank to proceed with the foreclosure. We strongly protest what appears to be a clear conflict of interest on the part of Mark Evans, who appears to be using his influence at the law firm (and therefore the bank) to engage in destructive, punitive actions with the ultimate aim of destroying his competition and thus ensuring the profitability of his own gun store.
Such behavior is monopolistic, anti-free-trade and un-American. Please contact the Attorney General and urge him to look into this matter.
Email: Attorney General Greg Abbott
greg.abbott@texasattorneygeneral.gov
At the same time, the bank's excuse to us for calling in the loan is because the "government does not support loans to the gun, alcohol, or hotel industries" and the banks get heavily audited. This is an extension of the Obama administration's backdoor efforts to bankrupt the firearms industry and all its supporting retailers and firing ranges. Since the government can't take away our Second Amendment directly, they make it difficult for businesses to stay open by pressuring banks to close loans. This has already happened to other gun shops around the country. We are fighting to make sure it doesn't happen to us.
All these factors seem to now be coalescing into a deliberate, well-planned attack on Tactical Firearms with the aim of permanently putting us out of business. The idea of our doors closing is incredibly painful to even imagine. We have over 30 employees, many of whom have children, who depend on our successful business operations to keep their own homes. In addition to our economic contributions to Katy and the greater Houston area, we also donate our time and profits to charities like Oilfield Helping Hands and Texas Sentinels.
Even more, there are 175 NFA items in our possession awaiting approval from the ATF. If we are unable to stay in business, every single one of these items would have to be resubmitted and the year long process would begin again.
(Part 1 of 2)