It wasn’t that long ago when the financial industry was seemingly at war with the gun industry. They’d received some political pressure, of course, but they caved like a cheap lawn chair trying to hold JB Pritzker for more than eight seconds.
One of the most egregious examples was Intuit reversing thousands of dollars in charges for Gunsite purchases, including for products that had already been shipped.
While that seems to have settled a bit, the threat of it is always there.
So it’s good to see states like Oklahoma making moves to…discourage such things.
NSSF®, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, celebrated Oklahoma’s Gov. Kevin Stitt signing SB 500, the NSSF-priority Firearm Industry Nondiscrimination (FIND) Act, yesterday in Oklahoma City. The law prohibits state agencies and local government entities from entering into contracts with corporations that discriminate against the firearm industry.
Gov. Stitt made firearm industry protections a priority and promised attendees at NSSF’s SHOT Show® Governors Forum that he would sign the bill into law if it made it to his desk. Yesterday, Gov. Stitt delivered on that promise in a formal ceremony of bringing protections against financial discrimination for firearm-related businesses in his state. The signing ceremony comes on the heels of President Donald Trump issuing the NSSF-supported Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans Executive Order to ban “woke” debanking that targeted the firearm industry.
“With his signature, Governor Stitt made clear it is the government’s responsibility to protect the firearm industry from sinister corporate efforts to starve it of essential services such as banking, payment processing, software and insurance. He appreciates our unique status as the only constitutionally-protected industry in America,” said Darren LaSorte, Director of Government Relations – State Affairs. “The governor embraces the fact that we must thrive for his constituents in the Sooner State to exercise a fundamental right. Governor Stitt has also protected the state’s taxpayers from being compelled to enrich the large, ‘woke’ companies actively seeking to diminish their right to keep and bear arms. NSSF sincerely thanks state Senator Casey Murdock and state Representative Kevin West, the bill’s sponsors, for seeing this years-long battle through to the finish.”
“Our Second Amendment rights are a cornerstone of the well-being of our republic. I was proud to sign SB 500 into law, because Oklahoma will always defend the right to bear arms,” said Gov. Stitt. “I’m grateful for groups like the National Shooting Sports Foundation for their work to defend this right.”
The government can’t really mandate who banks do business with, nor should they. Freedom of association has to work both ways for it to have any meaning at all.
But that same freedom of association means no one should be obligated to work with a company that actively discriminates against an industry so vital in protecting all of our freedoms.
Banks can opt not to do business with the gun industry, but then pro-gun states can just as easily decide to take their business elsewhere, and states do a lot of financial business. If they still want to discriminate, that’s up to them, but if their stockholders realize they’re missing out on a lot of money because the C-level executives are anti-gun, they might well find themselves looking for work.
As it should be.
That’s how freedom of association works, and I’m personally thrilled to see this for Oklahoma.
While it’s not going to be every state in the country that does this, this should at least be the law in every permitless carry state, at a minimum. Imagine losing out on the business of more than half of the states before you can even try to get it, while not having a sure thing in the remaining ones.
That just doesn’t sound like a good business model to me.
Editor: As someone who grew up in the Sooner State, I’m proud to see Oklahoma take another move to protect our Second Amendment freedoms.
Other states, though, are trying to eradicate those rights altogether. Join Bearing Arms VIP and use promo code FIGHT to take 60% off your membership, and help us expose and combat their anti-2A efforts.
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