Firearms Merchant Files Class Action Lawsuit Against PayPal And Other Payment Pr

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Firearms Merchant Files Class Action Lawsuit Against PayPal And Other Payment Processors

Blair Gladwin, owner of the California based Gladwin Guns and Ammo, filed three class action lawsuits last week against online payment processors PayPal, Stripe, and Square for singling out him and other firearms businesses.

The payment companies required Gladwin and the other owners to reveal the nature of their dealings â€" after which the payment companies refused to work with them.

Gladwin claims this type of discrimination is a violation of California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act Sections 51, 52(a) and 52(c), a law that protects federally-licensed gun stores from such refusals of business transactions.

The class action lawsuits, according to a press statement, are on behalf of himself and all federal firearms dealers who were barred from starting an account or had an account terminated by a payment processor because of the type of business they ran.

An interesting case.  On the one hand, I do not approve of forcing anyone to do business with anyone else.  But on the other hand, you are required to bake the damn cake.  He is using the laws that exist (laws I don't necessarily approve of) to fight for his privileges under those laws.  He's demanding that the laws as benefits others benefit himself in the same way. Pretty clever.

So ... should the electronic payment processors also bake the damn cake?

[Baruch]

Once they announce that religion is protected in the marketplace, and someone claims that their religion bars guns ... then they don't have to process your payment, now do they?

[Hakurei Reimu]

I like it how you try to draw this false equivalency between these two. One of these two items can be used to cause grief and heartache, and the other shoots bullets.

Joking aside, payment processors wouldn't insist on this unless their lawyers are telling them that serving gun shops is a bigger legal liability than cutting them off. And I can see why. Criminals might use their services to get around gun regulations, both federal and state. That's a big legal can of worms that payment processors may justifiably want no part of. There's also the fact that many credit cards won't authorize gun purchases, and payment processors are just facilitating purchases, and not actual credit services. As such, if a credit card company that won't authorize gun purchases finds out, the payment processor's name is mud. Hell, the way PayPal etc. do business may mean they cannot legally participate in gun sales and as such they must refuse to do business with gun dealers.

Unlike a bigoted shop owner, you can always trust a large company to do the thing that they think will net it the most money, especially if its publicly traded. They also have lawyers. Very well paid lawyers that know what they're doing and know the relevant laws better than anyone. There are lots of scary laws regarding the sale of guns.

[Baruch]

If I could get away with it, and I were a grocer, it would be against my religion to feed a Republican or a Democrat.  Seems fair to me.  Republicans and Democrats are both blood-thirsty maniacs ... worse than any gun.

[SGOS]

So ... should the electronic payment processors also bake the damn cake?

I really don't care that much, and if I did, it wouldn't make any difference.  But I don't know if you can compare the right to bear arms to religious freedom.  Oh, maybe you can, and some will while others will disagree, but I'm so confused about the laws regarding either one, that I'm finding myself in a fog of indifference.  I'll accept whatever the courts say, not because I agree or disagree, but because I have no other recourse.  I used to think that the Supreme Court was our finest example of unbiased blind justice, a cure for the stupidity of Congress, but now I perceive it as just another arm of the American political system driven by ideology and bias.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I used to think that the Supreme Court was our finest example of unbiased blind justice, a cure for the stupidity of Congress, but now I perceive it as just another arm of the American political system driven by ideology and bias.

How could it be otherwise? At least in the real world.

[SGOS]

How could it be otherwise? At least in the real world.

It can't be.  I was just underscoring my change in perception and new found cynicism. 

[Baruch]

I really don't care that much, and if I did, it wouldn't make any difference.  But I don't know if you can compare the right to bear arms to religious freedom.  Oh, maybe you can, and some will while others will disagree, but I'm so confused about the laws regarding either one, that I'm finding myself in a fog of indifference.  I'll accept whatever the courts say, not because I agree or disagree, but because I have no other recourse.  I used to think that the Supreme Court was our finest example of unbiased blind justice, a cure for the stupidity of Congress, but now I perceive it as just another arm of the American political system driven by ideology and bias.

Unbiased?  Never hear of the Dred Scott case?  They say ... the law is blind ... they say ... the law is an ass.  But enough about attorneys and jurists ;-))

Unfortunately some people do combine both amendments, they worship their guns.  Others use their jurist position for high crimes and misdemeanors (you hear me, Justice Scalia?).

On the other hand, the ability from pure ideology, to refuse service (as opposed to "no shoes, no shirt, no service") or to use electronic payment as a political tool, goes far beyond any amendments to the Constitution.  It threatens complete dissolution of the Union, and high tech tyranny.

[fencerider]

well the cake case was just a little bit of religious pedantry by zealots forgetting about other peoples freedom of religion. There are a whole lot of people that think that religious freedom applies only if you are a Christian

the good old boys will tell you they got a god given right to have a gun. On the other hand the Hindus say cows are sacred, but it's 4th of July time for a BBQ