This Week in Gun Rights is TTAG’s weekly roundup of legal, legislative and other news affecting guns, the gun business and gun owners’ rights. 

Big banks push back against fair access to financial services

There was a rule proposed by the Office of the Comptroller of Currency recently that would prevent big banks from denying entire industry segments from accessing financial services. It’s pretty convoluted, but the Dodd-Frank Act was actually designed, in part, to prevent predatory practices by banks.

Denials of banking services are supposed to be based on individual risk factors, but banks had been denying services to gun businesses, oil and gas companies, and others based on just a general aversion to those segments. The new rule would require denials to be based on actual metrics…and the banks hate this.

Anyone who’s been in the gun business has experienced this frustration. Having your business immediately designated as “high-risk” results in being denied a host of services by the majority of the financial market, with no individual reason.

Especially in the modern climate of de-platforming, and with efforts like Obama era “Operation Chokepoint,” denial of access to financial services is a highly concerning threat to the future of the Second Amendment in this country.

While it’s hard to cheer for any administrative agency doing much of anything, let’s hope this move by the OCC alleviates some stress from the ever-tightening noose on the gun business.

Biden to nominate Merrick Garland as Attorney General

Merrick Garland (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

So now we know that Merrick Garland, the guy Obama claimed was so middle-ground that he was a proper appointment to the Supreme Court, is now the pick for the position of Attorney General. Progressives may still complain about his “moderation,” but as for the Second Amendment, he is anything but.

Garland openly and notoriously criticized interpreting the Second Amendment as an individual right, despite the fact that holding any other way would make the Second Amendment the one and only reference to a “collective right” in our entire Constitution.

It’s clear garland has contempt for the Second Amendment, and his coming nomination and likely confirmation to the office of the Attorney General is surely cause for alarm.

Universal background check law goes into effect in Virginia

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Selling a firearm to another person in Virginia without going through a federally anointed gatekeeper of the Second Amendment could now net you a fine of $2,500, or a year in jail. The new law went into effect requiring virtually all firearm sales to be conducted via an FFL, with attendant fees paid.

Universal background checks are a pernicious assault on our rights, especially given the fact that people would have no legal alternative but to use the services of an FFL. We’ve seen this cause prices to rise for transfers in other jurisdictions where these laws are imposed. This is another policy that will serve only to annoy gun owners, harm the working class, and pose no countervailing benefit to our safety.

Kyle Rittenhouse pleads not guilty to shooting charges

Kyle Rittenhouse (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, Pool)

Arguing that he acted in self-defense, Kyle Rittenhouse has pled not guilty to all charges against him in connection with the August shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His lawyers argue that he was in fear for his life and that he attempted to surrender to a Kenosha police officer, but was told to go home.

This is not unexpected. The fight for Rittenhouse’s defense will now hinge on whether he had “clean hands” all the way to the beginning of the encounter. As in most instances, someone who had “unclean hands,” or who arguably acquired the situation necessitating deadly force, can be stopped from successfully arguing self-defense. Stay tuned.