South Dakota Republicans FOLD on Bill Targeting Anti-Gun Banks

As many are aware the gun control lobby has been picking up new tactics recently as traditional means of pushing gun control have started to falter, one of those new tactics is pushing the financial industry to regulate firearms by controlling how people can spend their money.

A way they have done this is by getting banks to refuse to do business with firearm manufacturers or firearm dealers. Republicans in some states opted to put a stop to this with legislation targeting the banks that engage in financial discrimination against the firearms industry. Unfortunately, some Republican lawmakers are now folding. 

Republicans in South Dakota are killing a bill that would have prevented banks from discriminating against the firearms industry. The bill, Senate Bill 182, would have prevented state officials from working with banks that discriminate against the firearms industry. 

The death of this bill is a travesty for businesses in the state as banks like Citibank and Bank of America are taking real steps to hurt the firearms industry. 

Mike Klumpp of Citibank told lawmakers that the company does not discriminate against the firearms industry, he claimed that Citibank only requires that companies do proper background checks and refrain from selling “high capacity” magazines. Considering that “high capacity” magazines are any magazine that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition according to the left, this is effectively a ban on every store that sells rifle magazines from Citibank. 

One company based out of South Dakota, Silencer Central, refutes the claims made by Citibank with a story of an interaction with one of Citibank’s employees. The group was trying to secure company credit cards and an employee of Citibank offered to lie for them on the forms so they could get these credit cards. Brandon Maddox, the owner of Silencer Central, stated that the employee told him “we cannot do business with a firearms’ business” but that he would list Silencer Central as a “sporting goods business” so they could get the cards. 

This could be the case of a mistaken employee but from Mike Klumpp’s testimony, it appears that the Citibank group simply does not understand that their rules apply to practically every firearms company in the country. 

The death of this legislation in South Dakota is a travesty and it will encourage the left to push gun control like this in the future.