SAN FRANCISO (MarketWatch) -- General Electric Co' GE, +4.51% financial unit, GE Capital, is cutting off lending to guns shops, according to a report Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal that cited letters sent by the company to several gun shop owners. "Industry changes, new legislation and tragic events" led GE Capital to reexamine its policies on financing firearms, spokesman Russell Wilkerson told the Journal. The move follows the December massacre at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Conn., in which 20 students and six adults died. GE Capital is the second financial firm to distance itself from the firearms industry. Cerberus Capital Management LP said shortly after the Newtown shootings it would try to sell its gun company Freedom Group Inc.