Kansas won't sit idly by and watch a $33 billion industry be treated this way.
According to The Wichita Eagle, a Kansas state senator has introduced a bill to ban discrimination against people and companies that make and sell guns.
Sen. Jacob LaTurner's bill, titled the Kansas Firearms Industry Nondiscrimination Act, would legally protect those who sell guns from having people refuse to do business with them for no other reason than they sell weapons.
It shall be an unlawful discriminatory practice for any person to refuse to provide any goods or services of any kind, to refrain from continuing an existing business relationship, to terminate an existing business relationship with or otherwise discriminate against a person or trade association solely because a person is engaged in the lawful commerce of firearms or ammunition products …
People who felt they were discriminated against on the basis of their working in the firearms industry would have grounds to file a civil action to receive "compensatory damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief or any other appropriate civil relief."
The bill will be considered during a hearing of the state Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs on Thursday.
LaTurner told the Eagle the bill was aimed to give gun makers an avenue to push back against the federal government and Operation Choke Point, a justice department initiative he claimed was cutting gun dealers off from banking services.
An FDIC report on the operation found "no instances" where it pressured banks to decline services to a merchant, with the exception of payday loan providers.
The bill will “give the firearm industry the ability to get some protection against this incredible overreach by our president,” LaTurner told the Eagle.
Maybe the gun industry could be the next protected class in Kansas. It might even get more civil rights protections in the state than LGBT people: In February 2015, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback rescinded an executive order by his predecessor that gave protections to people on the basis of their sexual orientation.