Kansas Senate Republicans held Federal & State Committee meeting today on Jacob Laturner's SB-331, a bill designed to provide non-discrimination support to gun sellers in Kansas. Laturner’s bill had a specific purpose: gun stores and gun sellers could not be discriminated against for their line of work, and other companies could not refuse to work with them.
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.
The hearing, however, didn’t go quite to plan.
Jonathan Shorman of the Topeka Capital Journal offered this assessment of the legislation:
The attack on the bill began early, with Thomas Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas pointing out the that a corporate gun shop would receive non-discrimination status before LGBT individuals in the state. “There are more LGBT Kansans than gun stores.” He continued by pointing out that those who needed protections continued to wait, while the bill addressed non-existent problems of civil rights for corporate entities. The bill, he argued, was a solution, looking for a problem.
Republicans, who wanted to avoid a discussion of LGBT and other civil rights issues, moved to table a big part of the discussion that led to a post-meeting confrontation:
http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article57007803.html#storylink=cpy
“The word ‘discrimination’ appears throughout the bill,” Witt said. “It is in the bill title. This bill is about discrimination and for the chairman to refuse to acknowledge that fact is basically a complete misreading or a non-reading of the plain language of the bill.” The bill is titled the “Kansas firearms industry nondiscrimination act.”
Witt had testified that there are an estimated 150,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people living in the state of Kansas compared with only 1,317 federally licensed gun dealers. Kansas is one of 31 states where a person can be fired or evicted for being gay.
What concerned Republicans extended far beyond LGBT organizations, as Elise Higgins, representing Planned Parenthood tossed another coal on the fire. Noting that Planned Parenthood was neutral on the bill, she noted that if businesses were to be provided with non-discrimination rights, preventing people from refusing to do business with them out of objections, then the same should apply to another legal business in Kansas, Planned Parenthood.
From her testimony:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-nvjKKlH-wGdXJIYW1Qa29MWGNqU3o3ZEdoOEZ1bGFSdVBr/view?usp=sharing
Senate Bill 331 should be amended to include protections for otheSeveral committee members noted the importance of the bill, which would function simply to make being a gun store a protected class — on the same footing as race and religion. The bill may still face other ongoing amendments. Perhaps, a conference call with whoever actually wrote the bill is in order.r organizations often subject to political attack which offer legal services and goods to Kansans.
*Abortion providers in Kansas, including Comprehensive Health of PPKM, regularly experience the discriminatory practices outlined in SB 331 because of political opposition to the reproductive health care services offered there. Such discriminatory practices include but are not limited to businesses refraining to continue an ongoing business relationship and the termination of existing business relationships solely because PPKM is engaged in the provision of safe and legal abortion. * Specifically, PPKM has experienced cancellation with little notice by venues hosting major events; refusal by vendors to complete the provision of services to which they are contractually obligated, and the cancellation by vendors of services because of political opposition to the services provided by PPKM. We agree with the author of SB 331 that such business practices are unacceptable and should be grounds for civil action based on their discriminatory nature.
* We hold that, just as a person or trade association engaged in the lawful commerce of firearms or ammunition products should not be subject to discrimination because of the nature of their business, so too should politically controversial organizations providing constitutionally protected services be protected from discrimination.
The Planned Parenthood representative pointed out that if legal protections were going to be provided for one government recognized corporate entity; then, protections should be valid for all, including Planned Parenthood.
The bill, while introduced by Laturner is showing up in other state houses in the country, with an identical version appearing in the current Alabama session.
Several committee members noted the importance of the bill, which would function simply to make being a gun store a protected class — on the same footing as race and religion. The bill may still face other ongoing amendments. Maybe a conference call with whoever actually wrote it is in order.
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