Texas House to Consider Three Pro-Second Amendment Measures on Tuesday

Contact Your State Representatives In Support of HB 2837, HB 1229 & HB 4827

Dear Texas NRA Member:

National gun control organizations recently pressured activist banks on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to create a unique merchant category code (MCC) for licensed firearms dealers. Now, they are pushing lawmakers to require credit card companies to use these MCCs to gather data on and track lawful firearms purchases. Since the federal government is prohibited by law from creating and maintaining a registry of gun owners, they are attempting to outsource this effort to the private financial sector.

House Bill 2837 by Rep. Matt Schaefer (R) prevents payment card issuers, a payment card network, or any person or entity or controller facilitating or processing an electronic payment transaction, from requiring the use of a firearms-specific MCC to distinguish purchases at a Texas firearms retailer from a general merchandise retailer or a sporting goods retailer. It protects the privacy rights of lawful purchasers of firearms or ammunition by prohibiting the misuse of payment card processing systems to surveil, report or disclose these legal transactions.​

HB 2837 will be considered by the Texas House of Representatives on Tuesday, along with these two other pro-Second Amendment bills:

House Bill 1229 by Rep. Cody Harris (R) prohibits state and child placement agencies from requiring foster parents to disclose the specific types of firearms they own and to report any newly-acquired guns in the household. Foster parents may still be asked to disclose whether they own firearms, but they cannot be required to provide specific descriptions or a registry of lawfully-owned guns to the state or a child placement agency.

House Bill 4827 by Rep. Terri Leo-Wilson (R) defines “educational institution” and “school” in the Texas Penal Code to limit the ability of controllers of properties which are not schools to designate themselves as such, claiming that educational activities take place on their premises and therefore firearms are prohibited from those locations. This has been happening at public venues that are not prohibited locations in the Penal Code, such as libraries, zoos and museums.

Please call and email your State Representatives and urge them to SUPPORT HB 2837, HB 1229 & HB 4827 on TUESDAY'S FLOOR CALENDAR!