Fellow Conservative,

This is completely unacceptable. For months, Congress has been battling the Obama administration to stop the DOJ from compelling banks and financial institutions to drop gun stores as customers.

The program is known as Operation Choke Point and it was supposed to have been stopped multiple times.

Last year, the House of Representatives slipped an amendment into the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2015 that completely defunded Operation Choke Point. Then, this year, the Department of (in)Justice and the FDIC announced they would no longer target lawful gun dealers. That was a lie.

The program is still going on. Gun stores are still being threatened by their financial institutions and some are having their accounts closed all together.

The Justice Department, in cooperation with the FDIC, began labeling gun stores as “high risk” merchants. Gun dealers were lumped in with escort services, pornography, firework stores, and drug paraphernalia as all businesses that financial institutions should simply avoid servicing.

This has become one of the administration’s greatest tools to go after gun stores and the Second Amendment. As I said, the House defunded the program. But the Obama administration is carrying on anyway!

Eric Holder’s DOJ is defying Congress! Force them to stop Operation Choke Point once and for all!

This is how Operation Choke Point works. The DOJ/FDIC go to financial institutions and threaten increased regulations if they continue to service businesses that sell guns and ammunition.

The financial institutions, eager to avoid more regulation and bureaucratic red tape, comply and simply drop the gun stores as clients.

This means that law-abiding gun dealers are becoming unable to secure financing, being turned away from credit card processors, and are having their checking and savings accounts closed without warning.

The result has been devastating both to gun dealers and the consumers. What makes it so despicable is that the whole purpose of this program is to make it harder for gun stores to do business. It makes firearms and ammunition more expensive, and these costs are passed down to the consumer.

The DOJ was ordered to stop the program and they agreed to. But more gun dealers are coming forward and claiming that the Obama administration’s assault against the Second Amendment is ongoing!

All this morning, Fox News has been covering Congressional hearings on Operation Choke Point. Many Congressmen are speaking up so they can get sound bites of them defending the Second Amendment. That isn’t good enough. Talking about this unconstitutional program isn’t good enough. It’s time for action!

Operation Choke Point was never about stopping crime… it was about targeting an entire industry that the Obama administration philosophically and politically disagrees with. It was about finding new ways to infringe on your Second Amendment rights without having to go through Congress!

If the full weight of the Federal Government can go down on one industry and try to push lawful storefronts out of business, then this can happen to anyone. Yes, this is about STOPPING the federal government from targeting gun stores, but we also must ensure that this type of harassment is not allowed regardless of the legal industry that is targeted!

Our Second Amendment rights are precious. But unless you know how to manufacture your own firearms at home, the exercising of your right to keep and bear arms is largely dependent on firearm retail stores. That is why the Obama administration is trying to put them out of business and we must push back and stop this illegal and unconstitutional anti-gun program!

Congress moved to defund this abusive program because patriots like you answered the call and overwhelmed them with tens of thousands of faxes demanding that they act. However, Eric Holder’s DOJ has completely disregarded this and continued targeting gun stores anyway. Law-abiding businesses are being forced to close their doors because of this President’s anti-gun agenda.

Demand that Congress put a stop to this illegal anti-gun program once and for all and start arresting these criminal bureaucrats

Eric Holder’s DOJ is defying Congress! Force them to stop Operation Choke Point once and for all!

Sincerely,

Joe Otto

Conservative Daily