Bill to ban discrimination against gun businesses passes Kentucky House
The Kentucky House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday that would prevent financial institutions and government entities from discriminating against the gun industry.
House Bill 175 would specifically prevent financial institutions and the government from refusing to engage in the trade of goods or services, terminate an existing business agreement or “otherwise discriminate” against gun retailers, manufacturers and distributors as well as trade organizations that support guns.
The sponsor of the bill, Republican Rep. Savannah Maddox of Dry Ridge, said some gun businesses in Kentucky are having trouble getting access to credit card processing services or loans. She cited Operation Choke Point, a former Department of Justice initiative that investigated banks that did business with firearms dealers and other businesses it considered at high risk for fraud.
“Allowing financial discrimination against the firearms industry poses just as much of a threat as the people who seek to exercise their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms as it does to the entities that supply the goods that enable them to do so,” Maddox said.
Amid concerns from Kentucky’s banking industry, the House passed an amendment to the bill that Maddox said would allow bankers to “engage in standard business decisions.”
The Kentucky Banking Association said the new language is better than the original version of the bill, but that the organization will actively oppose its passage in the Senate.
“No, we’re not comfortable with it,” said Debra Stamper, general counsel for the KBA. “The language there now is better than the language that was before, but we’re not ever going to be for a bill like that for a number of reasons.”
Among those reasons is the fact that the legislation implies the banking industry is discriminating against the gun industry. Stamper said there are many reasons banks may not get into lending with a business and that she knows of no examples of banks discriminating against gun businesses in Kentucky.
As a state with “constitutional carry,” which means someone can carry a gun either openly or concealed without a permit, Kentucky already has some of the most gun-friendly laws in the country. Those gun laws drew criticism over the past two years when gun-rights advocates carried large guns inside the Capitol.
The language in the bill is similar to one in Kansas that failed to make it out of committee in 2020 and 2016.
Chris Hartman, director of the LGBTQ rights group Kentucky Fairness, called it “sad” that the state legislature was prioritizing the rights of gun companies over the civil rights of LGBTQ people in Kentucky.
“It’s incomprehensible to me that these are the priorities of our commonwealth,” Hartman said.
A bill to ban discrimination against the LGBTQ community in Kentucky has never made it out of committee.
Rep. Angie Hatton, D-Whitesburg, said she usually supports bills bolstering gun rights, but she found this bill “needless.”
“I don’t consider this a Second Amendment bill,” Hatton said. “I consider this a bill that mandates one private industry to do business with another private industry. And I think it’s an invitation to litigation that’s going to cost our banking industry a ton of money to defend.”
The bill passed by a 73-24 margin and will now go to the Senate.
Mariah McGough, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky chapter of Moms Demand Action, called on the Senate to reject the bill.
“This is the latest example of the gun lobby trying to intimidate government and banks out of taking action on gun violence,” McGough said. “This bill is a dangerous overstep and the gun lobby shouldn’t be able to harass organizations with lawsuits and bury them with legal fees.”
