HELENA – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen called out big banks for discriminating against firearms companies while testifying in support of pending state legislation that would prevent the state from contracting with companies that have policies discriminating against firearm entities or trade associations.

House Bill 356, sponsored by Rep. Brandon Ler, would require companies seeking to do business with the state to disclose if they have policies that discriminate against other companies or organizations that are involved with the firearms industry or gun rights advocacy.

While testifying in support of Ler’s bill, Attorney General Knudsen called out large financial institutions like Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase for increasingly discriminating against firearms manufacturers and retailers simply because they are “engaged in a certain type of industry that that company has decided they think is ‘yucky.’”

“In my two years as the Montana Attorney General, I have almost lost count of the number of phone calls I’ve received from firearms industry members in this state that are facing systemic discrimination from the financial sector and others,” Attorney General Knudsen said. “Some financial institutions have taken it upon themselves to deny access to credit and banking services to this industry, which makes it harder for Montana companies to do business and interferes with our ability to exercise their rights. I strongly support Representative Ler’s legislation to protect Montanans’ gun rights and support our state’s growing firearm industry.”

“This is commonsense legislation that will not award Montana taxpayer dollars to companies that attack our values and way of life,” Rep. Ler said. “The firearms industry – and consequently the Second Amendment – is already under assault from the federal government. Montanans should not be forced to support companies that interfere with our right to keep and bear arms.”

The state would not investigate individual procurement applications, but if companies awarded contracts were later found to be in violation, that contract would be canceled. Only companies with more than ten employees and seeking contracts of more than $100,000 would be subject to the bill’s requirement, which is not retroactive.

The firearms industry is an important and growing part of Montana’s economy. Recently, Montana was ranked fifth in the nation for firearms-industry jobs per capita, second for the number of firearms shops per capita, and the highest rate of household gun ownership.

Click here to watch the hearing. Attorney General Knudsen’s remarks begin at 8:06:13.

Attorney General Knudsen has been actively fighting the targeting of the firearms industry and Montanans’ gun rights. He asked major shipping companies to clarify their gun-purchase tracking policies and called on YouTube to stop censoring firearm-related speech. Yesterday, he filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration’s unlawful pistol brace rule.