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Idaho to boycott anti-gun businesses?

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Copyright ? 2000 by WorldNetDaily.com
Republication permitted ONLY if this e-mail alertis left intact in its original state.
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http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_dougherty/20000314_xnjdo_idaho_to_b.shtml

No discrimination against
people ‘lawfully exercising
their 2nd Amendment rights’

By Jon E. Dougherty
? 2000 WorldNetDaily.com

On the heels of global financial giant Citibank’s Mar. 7 decision to end
its policy of not doing business with small firearms companies, officials
in Idaho have filed a resolution asking the state to sever business ties
to any firm or company that discriminates against weapons firms or pro-gun
activists. On Friday, C. L. “Butch” Otter, lieutenant governor for the
state of Idaho, in cooperation with the state’s Assistant Senate Majority
Leader John Sandy, introduced in the Idaho Senate State Affairs Committee
a resolution urging “state government to end business ties with contractors
and service providers that discriminate against individuals and organizations
lawfully exercising their 2nd Amendment rights.”

In a statement released to WorldNetDaily, Otter said Idaho should “send a
clear message” supporting the “Constitution and the rights of people to keep
and bear arms,” and that the state should “want to do business with folks
who share those values.”

Otter, who will likely pursue a U.S. congressional bid for retiring Idaho
Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage’s seat this fall, called the anti-firearms trend
among corporate policy boards “disturbing.”

“While that may be their prerogative from the standpoint of their own
internal social agenda,” Otter said, “it is our prerogative as a state
to not do business with those who would discriminate against people
exercising their constitutionally guaranteed rights.”

In making his decision, Otter referenced a series of WorldNetDaily reports
detailing Citibank’s anti-firearms policy. Before issuing its reversal,
Citibank’s policy executives made headlines when a local Las Vegas branch
office closed the account of a small shooting club called the Nevada Pistol
Academy just three days after owner Chris Lorenzo opened it.

Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for Citibank, told WorldNetDaily that upon
examining the local branch’s decision, the corporate banking giant “went
out and looked at our policies across (all Citibank branches) and found
that (they) were inconsistent.”

That inconsistency, Rodgers said, led to the decision by Citibank to make
all of their policies “uniform” in all their branches.

“We decided that moving forward the practice of assessing a small business
account will apply uniformly in small businesses,” including those “engaged
in the manufacture or sale of small firearms,” he said.

Nevertheless — and suspecting that other major U.S. firms have similar
policies — Otter is pressing forward with his initiative.

As an example of the kind of pressure states could apply to anti-gun
corporations, Otter said, “Citibank has a large contract with the State
of Idaho to provide transaction services for the Department of Health
and Welfare’s Quest card.”

Though Citibank has reversed its policy, the lieutenant governor stressed
that “we need to be sure that the people we are doing business with aren’t
also in the business of suppressing the rights of law-abiding gun owners.”

Jeff L. Malmen, a spokesman for Otter, said the Senate committee “moved to
print the measure” and will likely “consider it early next week.” Neither
he nor Otter predicted the eventual outcome of the resolution.

The resolution asks state lawmakers to “carefully examine” business
contracts with all firms operating on behalf of the state, “to ensure
that (Idaho) does not do business with entities that knowingly discriminate
against Americans exercising their fundamental constitutional rights.”

Though the resolution is specific to Idaho, Otter and Malmen hope other
states will adopt similar measures