Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Picture this scene sometime in the last weeks of June 2022: The Supreme Court has not only handed down a sweeping ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, but the high court also announced they will be taking up challenges to semiauto and magazine bans. Second Amendment supporters celebrate and engage in schadenfreude as anti-Second Amendment extremists wail with impotent fury…
Then there is an event at the White House. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the CEOs of major banks and credit card companies are there – and Biden is announcing that these banks and credit card companies are acting.
The CEOs declare that companies and dealers who sell modern multi-purpose semi-automatic long guns will be financially deplatformed. Those who make the guns will have their accounts closed. Consumers will not be able to use a major credit card to buy those guns (or, say, standard-capacity magazines). In addition, the Treasury Department encourages other banks and financial service companies to consider the “reputational risk” of being tied to gun sales.
Far-fetched? Then you’ve forgotten Operation Chokepoint. And if you think it will just be aimed at gun manufacturers, dealers, or your efforts to buy firearms, take a look at what Andrew Cuomo and Letitia James have done and are doing to the NRA. You don’t have to like the NRA or Wayne LaPierre to recognize that anti-Second Amendment extremists won’t just stop with a dissolved NRA. They will come after the Second Amendment Foundation, the Firearms Policy Coalition, Gun Owners of America, and others – and what chance will those groups have if the NRA can be taken down? Think that over, loyal Ammoland readers.
The same corporate assaults aimed at gun makers will be aimed at pro-Second Amendment organizations. The “real crime” won’t be what anti-Second Amendment extremists claim it is, whether it is James or anyone else. It will be that we used our First Amendment rights to defend the Second Amendment. And as we have seen from some anti-Second Amendment extremists, they view our efforts to protect ourselves from having our rights infringed on over horrific crimes and acts of madness we did not commit as corrupt (in the best case).
Here’s the worst part: There is precious little that the Supreme Court could do about it. We’d have the legal right to buy a modern multi-purpose semiautomatic rifle for the many lawful purposes there are – whether it is personal protection, hunting, competition, or even informal target practice – but the policies of the big banks and other financial services companies would deny that right.
You may think this is far-fetched but consider this: Anti-Second Amendment extremists will be trying to find ways to attack our rights. If they can’t ban guns, they’ll tie us up in red tape, they will make it far more of a financial burden, and they will come up with other avenues, like forcing industries to boycott the Second Amendment and those who defend it.
What can be done? The legislation passed in Louisiana and Texas is a start, but just denying the ability of those banks to underwrite bonds will not be enough. Versions of the Freedom Financing Act need to be passed at the state level as well, but most important will be working to defeat anti-Second Amendment extremists via the ballot box at the federal, state, and local levels as soon as possible.