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June 24, 2025
Texas AG Brings Legal Muscle Against Banking Discrimination
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is bringing new meaning to the phrase “Don’t Mess With Texas.” This time, it is aimed at big banks and he’s got Austin city officials in his sights.
AG Paxton is warning Austin city officials that they are in violation of the state’s Firearm Industry Nondiscrimination (FIND Act). That’s SB 19, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law in 2021. The law prevents “woke” corporations from profiting from Texas tax dollars and using those profits to fund efforts to deny those same taxpayers their Second Amendment rights. The state’s top law enforcement officer is warning the city that it ran afoul of the law when it entered into contracts with a bank called WEX Bank that discriminates against members of the firearm industry.
AG Paxton sent Austin officials a letter stating that WEX Bank discriminates against firearm businesses, referring to a June 2, 2021, debanking of Defense Solutions Group (DSG), a military and law enforcement provider specializing in high-end equipment. AG Paxton said WEX Bank terminated their services with DSG, ultimately causing the business to shutter, according to media reports.
AG Paxton wrote that the violation could just be an oversight, since the NSSF-supported Texas FIND Act took effect shortly before the contract was signed. However, he is urging city officials to amend their contract with the bank to include FIND Act provisions or terminate it altogether.
He said if the city doesn’t follow through, legal action could follow.
Enforce the Law
This is the first-known threat of litigation of the Texas FIND Act, and a long overdue but welcome maneuver from the firearm industry’s perspective. Laws only mean something when elected officials actually enforce them. There are 11 states with similar laws on the books and legislation is pending in Congress to do the same. Enforcing this law shows that Americans’ Second Amendment rights aren’t for sale to the highest bidder – or in this case – to the lowest bidder for government-funded bonds. There’s no better place for that final stand than the Lone Star State.
After all, this is the state where Texas volunteers flew a “Come and Take It” flag at the battle at Gonzalez, Texas. Those Texans later stood their ground against General Antonio López de Santa Anna and his overwhelming army at The Alamo in San Antonio before he was finally defeated at the Battle of San Jacinto. Texas takes gun ownership seriously.
NSSF has been doggedly persistent in getting FIND Act legislation passed in states and introduced in Congress. The Texas law, though, was the one that finally made banks sit up and take notice that if they were going to discriminate against firearm businesses, they would forfeit taxpayer-funded state contracts. That translates to billions in lost revenue.
What FIND Act Does
The Texas FIND Act requires corporations, including big banks, to certify that they do not hold discriminatory policies against firearm businesses if they want to compete for municipal contracts. In 2023, AG Paxton showed the corporate banks he meant business.
AG Paxton’s office determined in 2023 that Citigroup did, in fact, hold discriminatory policies against firearm-related businesses, despite their self-certification that they did not. That move barred from Citigroup from competing to underwrite $3.4 billion in state bonds. Citigroup had, in fact, adopted a policy of refusing to do business with entities that sold Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) without enacting a self-imposed age-based gun ban for adults under 21 and those businesses that sold standard-capacity magazines. Citigroup recently dropped their discriminatory policies after it became clear that “woke” business policies were hurting businesses across the board and President Donald Trump excoriated Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan while speaking at the World Economic Forum 2025 in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year. His remarks included J.P. Morgan Chase for their discriminatory policies too.
“You and Jamie [J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon] and everybody else, I hope you start opening your banks to conservatives,” President Trump said directly to Moynihan. “What you’re doing is wrong.”
Earlier this month, Citigroup announced it was dropping its policy of refusing to do business with firearm industry members. NSSF is cautiously optimistic but is still waiting to see evidence of that reversal.
The firearm industry applauds AG Paxton’s enforcement of the FIND Act. Denying firearm-related businesses essential banking services is breach of public trust. After all, these large corporate banks don’t just prosper through taxpayer-funded contracts to build roads, schools and airports, they also enjoy taxpayer-funded protections through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Those “too big to fail” banks were bailed out by American taxpayers to the tune of over $498 billion, only to see those same banks dry up the businesses that allow those same Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
Corporate banks shouldn’t be deciding public policy from an anonymous boardroom. And if they continue to deny business based on “woke” policies, the law gives taxpayers, through their elected officials, a right to choose where their tax dollars will go when it comes to municipal contracts.
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