Kansas Republican Jacob Laturner, R-KS, filed a model piece of legislation on Friday to provide protections against discrimination. The legislation protects those who face systemic discrimination and are subject to policies which cause them harm. Following up on Democratic Representative John Carmichael (D-Wichita) proposal for new statewide rules on Non-Discrimination against LGBT Kansans, Jacob Laturner has a new proposal: We must end discrimination against Guns, Gun Owners & Gun Stores.
http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2015_16/measures/documents/sb331_00_0000.pdf
Sec. 3. It shall be an unlawful discriminatory practice for any person
to refuse to provide any goods or services of any kind, to refrain from
continuing an existing business relationship, to terminate an existing
business relationship with or otherwise discriminate against a person or
trade association solely because a person is engaged in the lawful
commerce of firearms or ammunition products and who is licensed
pursuant to chapter 44 of title 18 of the United States code or a trade
association as defined by this act.
Laturner knows discrimination first hand. The discrimination has a name: President Obama. It comes in many forms, but mostly, it is the refusal to continue doing business with gun stores and gun owners solely because they support or sale guns & ammunition.
Laturner cites Operation Choke Point as the key reason for this policy. Operation Choke Point is a federal initiative designed to cut off bank support when clients are found to be involved in illegal activities such as fraud.
Operation Check Point, to this point, has only been used against Pay day lenders, in a federal lawsuit aimed to stop fraudulent bank withdraw from the lender. This did not, in fact, stop doing business with the lender, but rather was aimed at preventing unauthorized auto-debit from checking and savings accounts of loan recipients.
http://www.reuters.com/article/paydaylenders-operationchokepoint-lawsui-idUSL1N11V1UD20150925
The group and payday lender Advance America, Cash Advance Centers Inc, which has more than 2,400 offices and is also a plaintiff, claimed that the defendants exerted "back-room pressure" on banks to drive them out of business.
They said more than 80 lenders including Bank of America Corp, Capital One Financial Corp and JP Morgan Chase & Co have ended relationships with payday lenders as a result of the crackdown.
While that matter still weaves through the courts, to date, no pressure has been brought against any arms or ammunition dealer to date.
http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article56364875.html#storylink=cpy
A 2014 congressional report asserted that Operation Choke Point “has forced banks to terminate relationships with a wide variety of entirely lawful and legitimate merchants.” The U.S. House has voted to defund the program on multiple occasions.
An audit conducted by the FDIC’s inspector general, released in September, found no instances where the FDIC has pressured a financial institution to decline banking services to a firearm or ammunition dealer. Bank executives interviewed for the audit also “indicated that, except for payday lenders, they had not experienced regulatory pressure to terminate an existing customer relationship with a merchant on the high-risk list, including a firearms, ammunition, or tobacco retailer.”
Despite the fact that no pressure has been brought — in any way — against the gun industry or providers of ammo & guns, the LaTurner Bill is, in his mind, a way to strike back at federal over reach.
Still, in the way it is worded, it may be open to numerous “unforeseen complications”, including the inability of businesses to refuse service to those who practice concealed carry on their premise.
It shall be an unlawful discriminatory practice for any person to refuse to provide any goods or services of any kind
Because of this, it is impossible to determine where normal business practices that discriminate against guns — including notices that guns are not allowed on premise — would be allowable under the bill as currently structured.
Still, Senator LaTurner is obviously looking forward to a fall election, and like many Republicans, returning one last time to the idea that President Obama is head of a conspiracy that will harm his district.
With no sign of the boogie man anywhere near a Pittsburg, Kansas business, can Jacob Laturner strike the fear he needs in his Senate District to propel him back into office this fall?
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