Pro-Gun Senators Urge Regulators to Protect Firearm Businesses from Discrimination

Recently, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and 18 of his pro-gun colleagues in the U.S. Senate called upon the U.S. Treasury, Federal Reserve, and Small Business Administration (SBA) to protect law-abiding firearm businesses against political discrimination from banks and other financial institutions that administer the recently-enacted COVID-19 SBA loan programs.

In a letter dated April 28th, the Senators wrote: “[a] vocal but small minority has weaponized federally-backed banks against politically disfavored businesses that operate in good faith and compliance with the law, by denying them financial services based on political reasons that have nothing to do with creditworthiness. This includes the firearms and ammunition…industries.” They continued, “we are concerned the nation’s largest financial institutions will use participation in the Paycheck Protection Program and other SBA recovery loan programs to further financial discrimination policies against selected segments of the economy, based on their social policy and in opposition to SBA eligibility regulations.”

Their concerns are certainly justified, as we have long been reporting (see here, here and here) that some of the largest banks and financial institutions in the country have adopted corporate gun-control policies with the goal of preventing law-abiding Americans and businesses from exercising their constitutional rights. We’ve also recently witnessed financial relief programs specifically excluding all firearm businesses from eligibility. Many of the same institutions that discriminate against lawful firearm activity are now the clearinghouses for the COVID-19 SBA loan programs, reportedly picking up billions of taxpayer dollars for processing fees along the way.