While liberals are creating sanctuary states for illegal immigrants, conservatives are creating sanctuary states for our civil liberties.
On Monday, August 11, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt performed a ceremonial signing of Senate Bill 500 (which was already law), a piece of legislation preventing discrimination against the firearms industry.
“We don’t apologize for our conservative values, our God-fearing values. We actually promote that here in the state of Oklahoma,” said Governor Stitt in the press conference at the ceremonial signing.
SB500 prohibits governmental entities from contracting with companies unless they certify that they do not discriminate against firearm businesses, a preemptive move in response to numerous banks and other anti-civil liberties companies that have hostile and overt policies toward firearms businesses.
SB500 was introduced by Senator Casey Murdock and Representative Kevin West. The NRA-ILA (the legislative arm of the NRA) provided critical support in passing the bill. NRA-ILA Oklahoma State Director Travis Couture-Lovelady was present for the ceremony. They made the following statement on their website:
NRA thanks Governor Stitt, all legislators who advanced this critical legislation, and all NRA members and fellow Second Amendment advocates who took action in support of this bill during this year’s legislative session.
The move is in stark contrast to states like New Jersey, where the attorney general publicly supported the adoption of merchant category codes for the sale of firearms and ammunition — a policy they supported for three of the world’s largest credit card companies — Visa, American Express, and Mastercard.
Meanwhile, states like Tennessee have moved to safeguard the privacy of commercial transactions, with a bill passed in 2024 that prohibits financial institutions from using credit card merchant codes to track firearm and ammunition purchases in the state.
