Four years ago, I opened a small ammunition manufacturing shop in suburban Maryland. I was excited to open this new chapter in my life until I unknowingly became a victim of a punitive government initiative aimed at stores like mine.

Like all new business owners, I had to shop around and find a financial company to process my customers’ credit and debit card transactions. I filled out a number of credit applications, but to my surprise, I kept getting rejections. When I inquired to PayPal, PNC Bank, Stripe, and others, I was told essentially that they did not want to provide processing services to me due to my “industry.”