Credit Unions, Break Your Silence on Community Gun Violence

In his editorial, "A New Beginning," Michael Ogden asked the question, "How can credit unions earmark money for not only community emergencies, but for sponsorships, schools and cultural events?" In my opinion his question raises a bigger question: What is the role/mission of credit unions in their communities? I believe the new beginning is how credit unions engage in community outreach and what credit unions include in their advocacy to improve their communities and the lives of their members.

Credit unions are community organizations. They always have been community organizations but now are more so due to their community fields of membership. A community credit union has the mission of improving the financial well-being of its members. A necessary corollary is to improve the quality of life in the community. The quality of life in a community is a key determinate of the local economy. People want to live in communities where they can raise their families in an environment conducive to happiness and security. People choose to live where the quality of life is good. They shun places with a bad quality of life. Therefore credit unions have many reasons to be involved in all aspects of their communities through advocacy, volunteerism and monetary support, with the goal of improving the quality of life.

It is easy and necessary for credit unions to allocate some of their budget to promote local causes and charities, and to assist in disaster relief. A community credit union has to support the community it is part of, and it has to be an active participant in improving the quality of life for its members and its community as a whole. Members directly benefit from such community outreach. The credit union also benefits by earning a lot of respect. Community outreach increases the credit union's brand recognition. The credit union's association with good causes gives it a type of halo brand. The best advertising is a credit union's good works in the community. Community outreach also improves employee morale. Employees recognize the benefits of community outreach, then they support it, volunteer to help and often make their own donations.

Writing a check is the easy part of community outreach. A riskier and more active form of community outreach is advocacy. A credit union can engage in political advocacy, regulatory advocacy and public advocacy. Credit unions were founded due to advocacy. The mission of credit unions to improve members' financial well-being and the quality of life in their community requires advocacy. Political advocacy for credit union legislation and regulatory advocacy for regulations that impact credit unions are long-accepted forms of credit union advocacy. A community credit union must also engage in public advocacy for community welfare and the quality of life in the community. Public advocacy includes informing the community about the difference between credit unions and banks, credit unions' values and mission, and financial literacy and the need to make it part of public education; public advocacy also requires the credit union to advocate for the kind of community values that improve the quality of life in the community.

Gun violence is a marker for a bad quality of life. The safety and security of individuals is a key to the quality of life. The value we place on human life is an indicator of our degree of civilization. Unfortunately, the shooting in Parkland, Fla., has been just one of many. The mass shootings raise the question of whether lax gun laws and easy access to weapons of mass destruction like assault weapons are causes of mass shootings. They at least raise the research question of what we can do to prevent gun violence.

I have not heard credit unions raise their voices about gun violence. Gun violence affects credit unions, as they are often subject to it. My credit union was subject to six armed robberies in a period of about two years. I have a photo of a takeover robbery in one of our 22 branches that shows a robber with a sawed off shotgun holding members hostage while the robbery proceeded. At the robber's feet was a toddler playing with the toys we have in the branch for children. We often had to provide counseling for employees who were robbed at gun point. At other credit unions in our city and state, members or employees were shot. CoastHills Credit Union in Lompoc, Calif., had a member shot and killed during a robbery. Our branch design now includes bandit barriers of bulletproof glass and other anti-robbery security, which increases the cost of the branch significantly. All employees are trained for robbery drills. At least once a month we distribute robbery photos, usually of armed robbers, who have robbed other local financial institutions.

Clearly, credit unions should be part of the discussion about gun violence for their own selfish reasons.

But gun violence also affects the quality of life in our community, and as Parkland and dozens of other mass killings have shown, it affects the quality of life in our entire nation. All of us have to wonder if participating in our church, schools or public events like concerts will expose us to gun violence.

I believe credit unions must be part of the debate in their communities and at the national level about how we will address and solve the gun violence problem. It affects our ability to serve our members and our mission to improve the quality of life in our communities.

The question is, why have credit union leaders been silent about gun violence in their communities? I am surprised and disappointed that credit unions have not spoken up. After the robbery with the sawed off shot gun-toting robber, I went to the FBI and asked for help. That discussion led to my credit union's advocacy for more FBI involvement. We helped create a local network of credit unions and banks that shared robbery photos and information, which led to better integration between law enforcement and financial institutions, more news reports and photos of robbers to engage the public in identifying robbers, the installation of more bandit barriers and better in-branch security, and the reduction in the number of robberies. But to my regret, we never raised the issue of gun violence. We treated the symptoms but did not look for the causes.

Credit unions provided a lot of support and assistance to the victims in Parkland. Providing sympathy and care for the victims of gun violence is important and I applaud credit unions for their empathy and assistance. But what about a credit union's responsibility to help its community prevent gun violence?

I have not heard one word about the problem of gun violence from credit unions. Not from CUMIS, which insures most credit unions and must pay out millions every year due to robbery and gun violence. Not from CUNA and the leagues, which lobby on our behalf. And not from credit union CEOs and boards who represent the thousands of credit union frontline employees who face the risk of robbery, injury and possibly death every day.

And that, in my opinion, is wrong on many counts. It is an abdication of our role as a part of the community. It is an abdication of our responsibility to our members and employees. And it is an abdication of our role to advocate for the quality of life and values of our communities.

David Brooks is a conservative columnist and the author of the book, "The Road to Character." His comments in the book about the moral ecology of our culture apply to the question of whether credit unions should advocate on gun violence: "Each society creates its own moral ecology; a moral ecology is a set of norms, assumptions, beliefs and habit of behavior, and an institutionalized set of moral demands that emerge organically. Our moral ecology encourages us to be a certain sort of person. When you behave consistently with your society's moral ecology, people smile at you, and you are encouraged to continue acting in that way. The moral ecology of a given moment is never unanimous; there are always rebels, critics and outsiders. But each moral climate is a collective response to the problems of the moment and it shapes the people who live within it."

I maintain that credit unions, like people, must have a moral ecology and that moral ecology defines what sort of credit union it is. Credit unions have a responsibility to be part of the collective response to the problems of the moment – like gun violence – that impact our mission to help our members and make our communities better places to live.