Some people just don’t get it. No matter how many times it’s said, no matter the number of laws or even presidential executive orders are published, some people, and the companies they work for only learn the hard way.
NSSF was informed that one of our members, Kent Cartridge Company of Kearneysville, West Virginia, is being wrongfully denied payment processing services by at least two companies. Kent gave NSSF permission to publish this information.
The companies — Bill.com and Ramp — both separately informed officials at Kent Cartridge that they couldn’t use their services “due to compliance and underwriting restrictions,” and “due to restrictions from our partners,” according to emails provided to NSSF. Bill.com still lists “Weapons & Defense Sector” as a “Restricted Business and Industry,” with the clarifying description of “Manufacture, sale or production of arms, military and dual use equipment, weapons, guns, ammunition or explosives.”
To borrow a movie line, “It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for ’em.”
Even Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America changed their “debanking” tune after years of espousing “woke” financial discrimination policies.
Picking the Wrong Venue
That’s for several reasons. First, West Virginia is arguably one of the most pro-Second Amendment states and one of the friendliest to firearm and ammunition companies. West Virginia’s Gov. Patrick Morrisey has made it a point of signing legislation to protect the firearm industry against this very type of illegal discrimination.
Gov. Morrisey signed West Virginia’s Firearm Industry Nondiscrimination (FIND) Act.
“As Governor, I will always support and defend West Virginians’ God-given constitutional rights,” said Gov. Morrisey in a press release when he signed the law. “The bills I signed today further enshrine West Virginia’s strong support for the Second Amendment. Thank you to the legislature for working with me to get this done.”
Before Gov. Morrisey was elected to his current office, he was the state’s attorney general and fought financial discrimination against the firearm industry alongside other pro-gun state attorneys general.
That responsibility now belongs to West Virginia’s Attorney General JB McCuskey. He’s the state AG who led a group of 26 state AGs for a Department of Justice coalition in a Second Amendment Task Force to examine policies hostile to gun rights.
“This Task Force serves as another example of the Trump Administration’s commitment to using all the tools it has available to protect our constitutional liberties,” wrote AG McCuskey. “It will create a critical space for the federal government to devise innovative strategies to use litigation and policy effectively in the fight to protect the Second Amendment. We applaud your choice to create it.”
AG McCuskey has also been a regular at NSSF’s SHOT Show Attorneys General Forum in Las Vegas where he’s been vocal about ending illegal financial discrimination against firearm industry members.
It’s safe to say that this news isn’t going to go over well with Gov. Morrisey or AG McCuskey. NSSF has learned that AG McCuskey is already looking into this situation.
Again, some people will only learn the hard way.
A Federal Fight
It’s not just state laws that Bill.com and Ramp are running into. There are also federal concerns. President Donald Trump signed the Executive Order Guaranteeing Free and Fair Banking for All Americans. Essentially, the Trump administration did away with the “woke” financial discrimination policies that were allowed to fester under the Biden administration and revived and privatized the illegal Operation Choke Point.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ripped back the veil of secretive policies that denied financial services to firearm and ammunition companies. The OCC, with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation published a Final Rule that eliminated “reputational risk” from their supervisory programs that regulate banking and financial services in the United States. The rule prohibits the agencies from requiring, instructing or encouraging an institution to close customer accounts or take other actions on the basis of a person or entity’s political, social, cultural or religious views or beliefs, constitutionally protected speech or solely on the basis of politically disfavored but lawful business activities perceived to present reputation risk.
It’s safe to say that this won’t end well for the financial service providers that are illegally denying services to Kent Cartridge Company. There are questions that need to be answered, including who knew about the decision to deny services (including underwriters) and when did they know. West Virginia’s FIND Act was signed into law over a year ago. President Trump’s executive order was published nearly a year ago. The OCC and FDIC Final Rule was published months ago. This is not “new” news to financial service providers.
This is also the very reason why NSSF isn’t backing off making these policies permanent through federal law. NSSF continues to support Congressional efforts to codify these protections against banking discrimination by the Fair Access to Banking Act, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by U.S. Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) as H.R. 987 and in the U.S. Senate by U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) as S. 401 as well as the Firearm Industry Nondiscrimination (FIND) Act, introduced in the House by Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.) as H.R. 45 and the Senate by Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) as S. 137.
No one wants to see this sort of of financial discrimination ugliness. The financial service providers lose. The firearm businesses lose. Law-abiding citizens purchasing firearms and ammunition lose. That’s why NSSF continues to fight against this.
Still, some only learn the hard way. Safe bet is, the hard way is coming.
– Larry Keane
Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
