Bank of the West federally owned?

I have been OCing into Bank of the West for about a year now. I have gone to both branches in Ft Collins about twice a month each. I have never even had so much as a second look from any of the employees, until today. While I was in the middle of making a deposit with one of the tellers, the banker who's desk is closest to the door came up to me and rather harshly informed me that it is a federal crime to carry a firearm into any federally owned building. I mentioned that it was not posted at the entrance and and she seemed to not care about the state law that requires this. I also said that I was unaware that Bank of the West is federally owned and she informed me that all banks are federally owned and that they fall under the same law as the federal court houses. I'm pretty sure that she is wrong but I was wondering if anyone else had some more info to shed some light on the subject. I don't want anyone looking after my money if they are unable to keep it safe, or if they flat out lie to me.

Don't know if she flat out lied or is just stupid but banks are not federally owned, the are federally insured, and some of the less knowledgeable think that is the same thing.

gutshot said:

ask her if she gets a us government pay check.

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lol.

just because the government bailed their ass out doesn't make them government owned. At least not yet.

The only "banks" that are federally owned are the branches of the Federal Reserve. A bank being federally insured (FDIC) makes it no more federal than someone having flood insurance administered by the National Flood Insurance Program

As others have said, federally insured isn't even close to being federally owned. However you mentioned something about a state law requiring "no guns" signs....there is no law, private property can ban or allow as they see fit...the only law along those lines is for city-owned property and they must post all entrances against open carry if they have a law (CC cannot be prohibited, though).

Also, welcome to OCDO.

I would call and talk to the branch manager and advise him his employee does not know her **** and she needs to be re-trained..do this nicely of course as you get more honey by being sweet.

I'll call them, thanks

Thanks for all the replies. I do plan to contact the bank and discuss this situation with them. As I said before, I definitely have less faith in the bank now and I wish to find out exactly what the corporate policy is. Thanks for the correction on the posting "no open carry allowed" thing. I thought that applied to private businesses as well.

Yooper said:

The only "banks" that are federally owned are the branches of the Federal Reserve. A bank being federally insured (FDIC) makes it no more federal than someone having flood insurance administered by the National Flood Insurance Program

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With all due respect. I believe that if you do your homework you find that the Federal Reserve Bank are not ferderally owned. You will find that the Federal Reserve is a PRIVATE BANKING SYSTEM. Yet they control the governments money, go figure.

Rattrapper said:

With all due respect. I believe that if you do your homework you find that the Federal Reserve Bank are not ferderally owned. You will find that the Federal Reserve is a PRIVATE BANKING SYSTEM. Yet they control the governments money, go figure.

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You are correct, it is a private banking system, but most federal laws apply to it.

Bank of the West is not owned by our federal government. I concur with the rest of the group.

Why is it she felt she could go ahead and inform you? If it was truly illegal- shouldn't she have "done the right thing" and just called you in?

Sounds like she knew she couldn't have you arrested- but at the same time- didn't want you carrying a firearm inside.

Standard anti tactics, isn't it?

Yooper said:

You are correct, it is a private banking system, but most federal laws apply to it.

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To break it down in the most simplest terms.

The Federal Reserve actually PRINTS the dollars- then "rents" them to our government with interest.

Our government has had and does have the ability to Print currency- debt free. Nobody needs to print it for us.

Will we ever print our own money again? The only debtless dollars currently being produced are coins. They are worth what they cost to make. No interest on the coins- thus a truly debt free currency. We won't massive produce those- although we tried to distribute the debtless gold dollar coins recently which failed to take hold.

cscitney87 said:

To break it down in the most simplest terms.

The Federal Reserve actually PRINTS the dollars- then "rents" them to our government with interest.

Our government has had and does have the ability to Print currency- debt free. Nobody needs to print it for us.

Will we ever print our own money again? The only debtless dollars currently being produced are coins. They are worth what they cost to make. No interest on the coins- thus a truly debt free currency. We won't massive produce those- although we tried to distribute the debtless gold dollar coins recently which failed to take hold.

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Think of what could happen if the Congress took back the power it unconstitutionally gave to the federal reserve. The U.S. taxpayer is paying interest to the Federal Reserve, in order for them to print our money, and let us use it. The amount of money we owe the Federal Reserve in interest is staggering. Rep Ron Paul has determined that by eliminating the Federal Reserve, and giving that power back to Congress, that the government would then be able to eliminate the federal personal income tax for ALL citizens, and still have a similar amount of money to spend on government programs. In other words, the combined personal income tax for every tax paying citizen is equal to, or less than just the interest we pay to the Federal Reserve.

Yooper said:

Think of what could happen if the Congress took back the power it unconstitutionally gave to the federal reserve. The U.S. taxpayer is paying interest to the Federal Reserve, in order for them to print our money, and let us use it. The amount of money we owe the Federal Reserve in interest is staggering. Rep Ron Paul has determined that by eliminating the Federal Reserve, and giving that power back to Congress, that the government would then be able to eliminate the federal personal income tax for ALL citizens, and still have a similar amount of money to spend on government programs. In other words, the combined personal income tax for every tax paying citizen is equal to, or less than just the interest we pay to the Federal Reserve.

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Wow! Now I gotta say I like this idea a lot!

There is NO Federal or Colorado State Law governing Firearms in Banks.

I concur with everyone above. Bank of the West is surely a member bank of the SanFran Federal Reserve, and just like the Fed it is privately owned.

As far as their policy, don't trust anything that isn't in writing. If they tell you that OC is against their policy, make them provide it to you in writing. They'll probably do to you what 1st Bank did to me, which is try to imply that they have a policy against OC ("we have a policy of asking that you that you not OC because it makes everyone uncomfortable") but won't actually state that it is indeed their corporate policy because they don't want the liability.

KD0EGE said:

I have been OCing into Bank of the West for about a year now. I have gone to both branches in Ft Collins about twice a month each. I have never even had so much as a second look from any of the employees, until today. While I was in the middle of making a deposit with one of the tellers, the banker who's desk is closest to the door came up to me and rather harshly informed me that it is a federal crime to carry a firearm into any federally owned building. I mentioned that it was not posted at the entrance and and she seemed to not care about the state law that requires this. I also said that I was unaware that Bank of the West is federally owned and she informed me that all banks are federally owned and that they fall under the same law as the federal court houses. I'm pretty sure that she is wrong but I was wondering if anyone else had some more info to shed some light on the subject. I don't want anyone looking after my money if they are unable to keep it safe, or if they flat out lie to me.

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She's full of crap. Banks are private entities.

Congress controlling monetary policy?

Yooper said:

Think of what could happen if the Congress took back the power it unconstitutionally gave to the federal reserve. The U.S. taxpayer is paying interest to the Federal Reserve, in order for them to print our money, and let us use it. The amount of money we owe the Federal Reserve in interest is staggering. Rep Ron Paul has determined that by eliminating the Federal Reserve, and giving that power back to Congress, that the government would then be able to eliminate the federal personal income tax for ALL citizens, and still have a similar amount of money to spend on government programs. In other words, the combined personal income tax for every tax paying citizen is equal to, or less than just the interest we pay to the Federal Reserve.

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I must disagree that this is a good idea. You see, "Congress purposely established the fed as an independent agency of government. The objective was to protect the Fed from political pressures so that it could effectively control the money supply and maintain price stability. Political pressures on Congress and the executive branch may at times result in inflationary fiscal policies, including tax cuts and special-interest spending. if Congress and the executive branch also controlled the nation's monetary policy, citizens and lobbying groups undoubtedly would pressure elected officials to keep interest rates low even though at times high interest rates are necessary to reduce aggregate demand and thus control inflation. An independent monetary authority(the Fed) can take actions to increase interests rates when higher rates are needed to stem inflation. Studies show that countries that have independent control banks like the Fed have lower rates of inflation, on average, than countries that have little or no central bank independence." Can you imagine how bad off we would be economically if Congress had control of monetary policy. Those men and women can barely wipe their own butts, let alone try to even understand monetary policy and how it works.

Source: My economics textbook

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tpain said:

"The objective was to protect the Fed from political pressures so that it could effectively control the money supply and maintain price stability."

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Wow. Maintain price stability? Prices cannot be "stabilized" or "fixed" without disastrous results. The free market determines prices by coordinating supply, demand, marginal productivity, etc. Any interference in this process distorts prices and hurts the market.

tpain said:

"Can you imagine how bad off we would be economically if Congress had control of monetary policy."

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The whole point is not that more centralized control by the federal government over monetary policy would be a good thing. ANY interference by the government in the market (including the unconstitutional and economically-inept Federal Reserve) is a bad thing. A free market demands true economic freedom. The Fed sets interest rates independent of the market. Artificially low interest rates set by the federal reserve cause recessions. It causes malinvestment due to the expansion of credit which improperly allocates resources. It's not that we should have Congress determining monetary policy, there should be no central banking in the first place.