Arizona Legislature Taking Steps To Stop Banks From Discriminating Against Firearms Industry

Arizona Legislature Taking Steps To Stop Banks From Discriminating Against Firearms Industry


As far-left groups push banks and financial institutions to stop doing business with gun stores, gun makers, and firearms industry-related companies, GOP lawmakers in Arizona are taking steps to prevent that kind of economic terrorism.

Under HB2473, banks would be barred from receiving government contracts if they refuse to pledge not to discriminate against anyone in the firearms industry, though the legislation would not impact current contracts.

“Businesses can do what they like, but these are the ones speaking are federally chartered banks. We have to make this right for the people,” State Rep. Frank Carroll told The Daily Wire. “[These banks] are saying they have a right to make political decisions about banking. What is that to the people that need banking services?”

The outlet noted further:

During a committee hearing last month, Ruger Firearms VPO Tim Lowney said their decades-long relationship with Bank of America was cut abruptly cut short. The bank had informed Lowney they would no longer do business with his company because they’re in the firearms industry. Ruger has over 400 employees in Arizona. 

Lowney said Ruger faced similar problems at other banks, and that firearms dealers are also suffering.

Arizona Bankers Association (ABA) spokesman Jay Kaprosy argued that there weren’t any circumstances in which a business was entirely unable to obtain banking due to their relation in the firearms industry. 

“We have searched high and low trying to find circumstances in which there is a firearms business or a rampant set of firearms businesses that are going without a bank [or] banking relationship. We’ve been unable to find any,” said Kaprosy.

So — Lowney is lying? Hardly.

According to the outlet, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) has taken up lobbying for similar legislation around the country in states like Kansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma, as well as in Congress, meaning that, obviously, banks cutting off the firearms industry businesses is a ‘thing.’ NSSF Public Affairs Director Mark Oliva told The Daily Wire that the legislation will ensure that keeping the Second Amendment’s guarantee of a right to keep and bear arms viable: If banks refuse to do business with gunmakers and gun sellers, then that effectively negates the Second Amendment because there won’t be any makers or sellers.

“You are born with your inherent right to exercise your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. That right doesn’t exist unless you have the ability to go down to a gun counter and buy a gun,” said Oliva. “Unless you have the right to go down and lawfully obtain a firearm, that right is on paper only.”

In fact, major banks are either limiting or prohibiting outright conducting business with firearms-related companies and shops including CitiGroup, which swats away gun stores who sell to individuals under 21 years of age (rifles and shotguns — this is legal under federal statutes) or who have not passed a background check (no federally licensed gun store can sell to someone legally without first conducting a background check that the buyer must pass). Those stores that sell bump stocks and high-capacity magazines (and, both legal to own) are also shunned.

“These groups are trying to institute laws that are going well beyond what’s prescribed in federal and state laws to institute their own gun agenda through their own corporate largesse,” said Oliva. “They’re unaccountable to the American public.

“This is why we elect leaders, because they can represent us on these issues. If we disagree with them, we have the ability to vote them out. We don’t have that ability with the corporate boardrooms,” he added.


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