Pivdencom Bank
Related Articles
A proposal that would bar any Arizona government agency from contracting with a company that refuses to do business with a gun company has received strong support from majority Republicans on a committee of the State House, but was harshly rebuffed by the banking industry.
Ross D. Franklin/AP File Photo
hide caption
toggle caption
Ross D. Franklin/AP File Photo
A proposal that would bar any Arizona government agency from contracting with a company that refuses to do business with a gun company has received strong support from majority Republicans on a committee of the State House, but was harshly rebuffed by the banking industry.
Ross D. Franklin/AP File Photo
PHOENIX — An Arizona bill to ban government agencies from contracting with companies that refuse to do business with gun companies received strong support from majority Republicans in the United States this week. in a state House committee, but drew strong criticism from the banking industry.
GOP Representative Frank Carroll’s proposal would require companies doing business with state or local governments to certify that they will not refuse to work with gun-related companies.
Carroll and other GOP supporters have said some banks refuse to do business with companies involved in the gun industry. They framed it as a matter of preventing people from exercising their Second Amendment rights.
“Why wouldn’t you want to do business with a Second Amendment-related company?” Republican Representative Quang Nguyen questioned a banking industry lobbyist during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. “I feel like it’s more political.”
But bankers resisted the bill, calling it government overreach for lawmakers to try to force companies to deal with other companies against their will and said lawmakers were creating a problem with a non-issue by Arizona.
“It’s meant to get the government to interfere with these private companies and come in and tip the scales in favor of one industry,” said Jay Kaprosy, a lobbyist with the Arizona Bankers Association. “What this bill is asking all of you to do is pick winners and losers over which Arizona companies we’re going to favor and that’s where we have a problem.”
Kaprosy said a bank loan officer specializing in agricultural banking, for example, might reject a loan application for a firearms manufacturer because it is not their business purpose and, under Carroll’s proposal, this bank could be prohibited from handling government banking services.
The legislation follows the closure of social media sites popular with extremists, including Gab and Parler, when their hosts, banks or payment processors refused to continue doing business.
Other states targeting arms manufacturers
Arizona’s bill stands in contrast to efforts in more liberal states to target gun manufacturers.
Last year, New York passed a law to make it easier to circumvent a federal law that grants gunsmiths immunity from prosecution.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has proposed another approach targeting gun corporate bottom lines, inspired by a Texas anti-abortion law that allows private citizens to sue those who help with an abortion.
Attorneys general from 13 states and the District of Columbia have also backed a lawsuit filed by the Mexican government against gunmakers. Public pension plans in several states have come under pressure to divest stakes in gun companies.
Michael Findlay, director of government relations for the firearms industry trade group, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said Arizona’s measure is justified because gun companies have been victims of discrimination in the banking sector.
“This bill is a Second Amendment bill,” Findlay said. “We have members in the state of Arizona as well as across the country who have experienced discrimination regarding access to capital, payment processors.”
Similar legislation has been enacted in Texas, Wyoming and Georgia, he said.
But Kaprosy said the proposal is purely political and threatens the independence of the banking sector.
“It’s a stretch to suggest this is a Second Amendment problem,” Kaprosy said. “This is a political issue in which banks and other businesses are innocent bystanders, frankly, in a war of words and culture taking place outside the banks.”
Party line voting
The committee voted along party lines, 6-4, with no Democratic support. The bill now heads to the full House after routine review by another committee.
Two other gun bills passed by the Arizona House on Thursday would relax gun laws by allowing guns in libraries and many other public buildings and permitting the transportation of weapons loaded into vehicles on school grounds.
Debates on two other proposals – one allowing guns on college campuses and the other allowing people between the ages of 18 and 20 to obtain provisional concealed weapons permits – have been delayed.
Arizona already has some of the least restrictive gun laws in the country, allowing anyone legally entitled to own a firearm to carry a firearm without a license, making concealed carry permits exceptionally easy to obtain. and allowing the sale of private firearms without background checks.
