State should reject absurd banking bill
Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine, has proposed legislation that would prohibit banks that “do business with gun manufacturers from doing business with the state of California,” as the current text of Senate Bill 637 states. Min pretends the bill is about gun violence. But it would do more to promote Min's upcoming congressional campaign than it would meaningfully address gun violence.
“SB 637 will force Wall Street to make a choice between the blood money offered by the gun industry and doing business with the state of California, sending a clear message and more importantly a strong market signal that the state of California will not, either directly or indirectly, finance gun violence,” Min said in a statement announcing the bill last week.
This sort of hysterical rhetoric is not a serious response to the very real and serious problem of gun violence in California and across the country.
For one, it calls on banks to discriminate against lawful businesses simply because some politicians in government don't like the sort of products being sold. That is an improper use of government power.
There are other problems, too. “The goal of this bill obviously is to drive the firearm industry out of existence, and with it the ability of lawabiding Americans to exercise their right to acquire firearms for lawful purposes including self-protection,” argues Larry Keane from the National Shooting Sports Foundation in a recent commentary. “It would shutter the industry that provides the tools law enforcement uses to protect America's communities and the U.S. military to defend the homeland.”
Indeed, as much as Min doesn't like it, the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms. The overwhelming majority of gun owners and gun purchasers are exercising their constitutional right to protect themselves.
By contrast, it is commonly the case — perhaps even mostly the case — that those who use guns in the course of criminal activity are already not allowed to have them in the first place.
This is not the first time Dave Min has used the power of legislation for a hollow political stunt. Last year, the Legislature approved his bill SB 915 to ban the sale of firearms on state property, with the chief target being gun shows on fairgrounds. As pointed out by the Rural County Representatives of California, “Throughout the nation, there has been no evidence of firearms being obtained improperly at a county fairground property. SB 915 simply creates winners and losers in the retail firearm industry, and would drive firearm consumers to other retailers, including those that operate out-ofstate.”
Alas, what Dave Min was after was a cheap legislative victory that gives the illusion he's fighting gun violence when all he's actually doing is using the real problem of gun violence for cheap political points.
Reject the stunts. Reject SB 637.