Arizona bill would penalize businesses refusing to work with firearms companies

Last week, the Arizona House voted on a bill that would penalize businesses in the state that refuse to do business with firearms companies.

The bill (HB 2473), proposed by state Representative Frank Carroll, R-Sun City, would require companies that sign contracts worth more than $100,000 with the state or local governments to agree that they won't refuse to do business with firearms-related companies.

The bill passed along a party-line vote of 31-28. Every Republican voted in favor of it and no Democrat supported it.

Republicans and the firearms industry support the bill. They say it's necessary because some banks refuse to do business with firearms companies.

That's the argument that National Shooting Sports Foundation director of government relations Michael Findlay made during the House Judiciary Committee hearing last week.

"This bill is a Second Amendment bill," he said. "We have members in the state of Arizona as well as all over the country that have been discriminated on access to capital, payment processors."

However, banks and Democrats oppose the legislation, arguing that they should have the right to do business with who they want.

"This seeks to have government interfere with those private businesses and come put their finger on the scale in support of a single industry," Arizona Bankers Association lobbyist Jay Kaprosy said during the hearing on the bill last week that "...what this bill is asking you all to do is to pick winners and losers about what businesses in Arizona we're going to favor and that's where we have a problem with it."

The bill now heads to the Arizona Senate for consideration.