While Operation Chokepoint may be a thing of the past, the eddies of it continue to swirl around anti-gun politics. Pseudo-financial institutes such as Pay Pal are notoriously hostile to anything related to firearms, even for things such as training or subscriptions to firearm related educational content, which don’t technically go against Pay Pal’s use guidelines, have been subject to cancel culture. The topic of fiscal chilling of firearm industry members is so prevalent, the introduction of cryptocurrency use is being considered, as discussed in a recent Gun Talk Radio show. Conventional big banks and credit card processing services are still punishing businesses, severing their relationships without notice, and canceling services to those that have anything to do with firearms.

Some states are idly standing by, allowing this egregious discrimination to occur, and others are taking the topic head on.  On April 8, 2021, Governor Mark Gordon of Wyoming signed a law which will limit financial institution’s abilities to deny services to firearm industry members.  House Bill 236/House Enrolled Act 87- Firearms transactions – financial discrimination, is:

AN ACT relating to banks, banking and finance; prohibiting financial institutions from discriminating against firearms businesses; specifying civil remedies; providing for attorneys fees and costs for a successful action; providing a statute of limitations on civil actions; providing for potential loss of state business to a financial institution found to have violated this act; and providing for an effective date.

What does this law do for firearm industry members?  It will provide them relief by allowing…

A person who is injured by a violation of this article may bring a civil action against the financial institution. A court of competent jurisdiction shall award the successful party reasonable attorney fees and costs.

Laws like these need to be replicated throughout the land. Since the federal government has done little to offer up the proper protections to industry members from being discriminated against, freedom oriented states are stepping up to the plate and swinging for civil rights. How Operation Chokepoint has not been subject to a RICO level scrutiny escapes me, as well as the continued chill since the formal dissolution of the program. The fact of the matter is these practices are illegal, as they are creating different classes of people and businesses, refusing to serve “those people”.

One of the most best features of Wyoming’s new law is the punishment that any offending financial institute may be subject to.  From the text of the law, the following provision does exactly what these banks have done to those they have offended against, hits them below the belt on the bottom line:

The attorney general shall submit the name of any financial institution that has violated this article to the governor and request that the state terminate any business relationship with the financial institution.

Governor Mark Gordon of Wyoming should be commended for signing this bill into law, as well as all the state legislators that supported it. Financial institutes out there pay attention. Yes, this may be just one state, the state of Wyoming.  The least populated state in all of the United States. But every journey begins with one step…as the anti-civil rights crowd incrementally stole freedoms from Americans, so we shall work to regain them. The number of permitless carry states, which is growing, should be a good indicator to all anti-gun politicians, financial institutes, etc. on which direction the country is leaning.

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