California to Consider Not Working With Banks That Do Business With Gun Makers

A 32 caliber handgun in Temecula, Calif., on March 27, 2021. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

A California state senator introduced a bill last week that would prohibit the state from working with banks that also do business with gun manufacturers.

State Sen. Dave Min, a Democrat, introduced SB 637 to force banks to make a choice between what he called “blood money offered by the gun industry” and doing business with the state.

“[The bill] sends a clear message and a strong market signal that the State of California will not, either directly or indirectly, finance gun violence. This bill applies to every aspect of the state’s public finances,” Min wrote on Feb. 16 on Twitter. “Unfortunately, the gun violence epidemic is being bankrolled by financial institutions that have turned a blind eye towards the horrors that their investments in the gun industry have created.”

California state Sen. Dave Min, a Democrat, in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Oct. 6, 2021. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

A spokesman with the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearm industry’s trade association, told The Epoch Times that the bill discriminates against the firearms industry, which is constitutionally protected.

“I think it’s a blatantly unconstitutional bill,” said Mark Oliva, managing director for public affairs with the association.

The legislation is an attempt to put firearms manufacturers out of business by denying them financial services, according to Oliva.

“We are the only industry that provides the means that allows you to exercise your constitutional rights,” he said. “This is beyond the authority of California’s government. It’s a fairly simple bill, but it is far-reaching.”

The bill is somewhat similar to Texas’s SB 19 that passed in 2021. That law prohibits Texas from entering contracts with companies that discriminate against the firearm or ammunition industries. However, Min’s bill flips the concept, Oliva said.

Min has been an outspoken critic of the gun industry while in office. He successfully passed a bill in 2022 that banned gun shows on property owned and operated by the state, including the state’s county fairgrounds. Newsom signed the bill into law in July 2022.