Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Second Amendment supporters don’t just have to worry about gun bans. In fact, there is a very real possibility that in a few years, the Supreme Court, between NYSPRA v. Bruen and other cases, could very well end the threat of legislative gun and magazine bans. However, the real battles would be starting.
One such battle could be in finding ways to prevent the financial deplatforming of gun manufacturers and firearms dealers. There are a number of ways anti-Second Amendment extremists will try to do this. One is through red tape, like with HR 5764, the Gun Violence Prevention Through Financial Intelligence Act.
We covered a previous version from the last Congress, which was sponsored by Jennifer Wexton. This year, Madeline Dean has sponsored the bill, with Wexton as one of the co-sponsors. As is the case with the last time this bill was discussed, the threat to out rights is very serious.
This legislation launches an indirect attack via a fishing expedition by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The purpose of that fishing expedition is to seek ways to determine “how homegrown violent extremists and perpetrators of domestic terrorism procure firearms and firearm accessories for the purpose of carrying out lone actor or lone wolf acts of terror within the United States.”
There is a second part, one Second Amendment supporters should also note. FinCEN also is to find out “the ways in which the firearms market in the United States is exploited to facilitate gun violence in the United States.”
If you recall past “studies,” you know what answers will likely emerge from any report that comes out. In addition, the sheer red tape and hassle banks go through in order to provide this data (the numbers of purchases will likely be higher than they were the last time this bill was proposed) will likely cause them to prohibit the use of credit and debit cards to buy firearms.
When firearms sales get reduced to an all-cash business, it will be that much harder to exercise our Second Amendment rights. Worse, a Supreme Court ruling would take way too long to address the harm done by what would be de facto financial deplatforming.
In one sense, there is a need for a “stick” to address companies that buy into Bloomberg’s bullshit. That said, Second Amendment supporters also need to recognize that we also need to give these companies protection from red tape and other efforts anti-Second Amendment extremists could use to bully them.
Defeating HR 5764 is one way to do that, so Second Amendment supporters should politely urge their Representative and Senators to oppose this legislation. They also need to defeat anti-Second Amendment extremists via the ballot box at the federal, state, and local levels this November.