Montana Senator Files Bill to Stop Discrimination Against Firearms Industry

A number of pro-2A bills have been introduced in Congress this week, including a measure by Montana Sen. Steve Daines that seeks to stop discrimination against the firearms industry by banks and other businesses.

The Firearm Industry Non-Discrimination (or FIND) Act’s premise is simple: if corporations have policies that preclude or limit businesses in the firearms industry from using their services, those companies would essentially be locked out of receiving taxpayer-funded contracts and subcontracts.

“Doing business with anti-Second Amendment corporations erodes Americans’ trust and infringes on law-abiding citizens’ constitutional rights,” Daines said. “It must stop.”

Companies said to discriminate against gun owners include Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Capital One, according to the American Accountability Foundation, a nonprofit government oversight and research group.

For instance, Bank of America has denied services to gun manufacturers, fossil-fuel producers, and contractors for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the Montana Attorney General’s Office.

Co-sponsors of the FIND Act are Republican Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Rick Scott of Florida, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Jim Risch and Mike Crapo of Idaho, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Ted Budd of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Tim Sheehy of Montana, Pete Ricketts and Deb Fischer of Nebraska, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Joni Ernst of Iowa, and Katie Britt of Alabama.

Rep. Jack Bergman, a Michigan Republican, has introduced a House version of the FIND Act as well, and at least 38 representatives have signed on as co-sponsors.

As the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Larry Keane laid out after Bergman’s bill was introduced, “his legislation is critical to ensuring ‘woke’ corporations don’t use their financial might, funded by taxpayers, to deny essential services to the firearm industry.

“Corporations, in particular financial institutions, have been dictating public policies from boardrooms that throttle firearm businesses, which are Constitutionally protected. This bill will no longer allow those corporations to benefit from taxpayer dollars while at the same time using those funds to deny Americans their Second Amendment rights.

Keane adds that the FIND Act would “ensure fairness in business” while “reasserting Congress’s role in ensuring the federal government isn’t picking winners and losers in the marketplace based on politics and protecting the ability of a lawful industry to compete for services without artificial and agenda-driven barriers.”

At least nine states, including Texas and Louisiana, already have variations of the FIND Act on the books that preclude companies with a history of discriminating against the firearms industry from doing business with state (and in some cases, local) goverments, but a federal directive would have a far bigger impact in terms of bringing these abuses to heel.

The FIND Act has been introduced in previous sessions of Congress, but with the GOP’s control of both the House and Senate this year there’s at least a slightly better chance of its passage. In a perfect world this simple bill would pass with unanimous support, but with the Democrats’ anti-gun ideology and adherence to woke business practices, the FIND Act could struggle to find enough support to make it to Donald Trump’s desk.

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