U.S. Representatives Riley Moore (R-WV-02), Richard Hudson (R-NC-09), and Andy Barr (R-KY-06) have introduced H.R. 1181, the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act. This crucial legislation would prohibit credit card companies from tracking constitutionally protected purchases like firearms and ammunition.
This privacy protection bill is important for law-abiding gun owners everywhere, and NRA-ILA has written extensively on the issue. In 2022, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved a new Merchant Category Code (MCC) for firearm retailers. The ISO is a European non-governmental organization that is used to standardize commercial practices across the globe. This change by the ISO was prompted by requests from Amalgamated Bank, a notoriously anti-gun financial institution that intends to use this new code to “report suspicious activity and illegal gun sales to authorities,” while leaving those terms intentionally nebulous.
A new MCC for firearms related transactions could lead to a backdoor registry of gun owners which could then be accessed by the federal government and possibly even third-party groups like gun control advocates. This effort to create a privatized directory of gun owners is especially egregious because the federal government itself is statutorily prohibited from creating a firearm registry. Gun grabbing corporations and organizations are pushing this approach because they have failed to achieve their despotic results through the legislative process.
At least 16 states have already taken it upon themselves to ban credit card companies from utilizing this MCC, and this bill would extend these privacy protections nationwide. And through the tireless work by these state legislatures and Attorneys General, the major credit card companies paused the implementation of this new MCC in 2023. NRA-ILA has supported efforts by the states to protect the privacy of law-abiding citizens and is proud to support the expansion of these protections at the federal level. This bill would ensure that credit card companies cannot backtrack on their decision to stop the roll-out of the new MCC through a change in political winds or renewed pressure from anti-gun groups. “The implementation of Merchant Category Codes to surveil lawful purchases is nothing more than an ill-conceived attempt to create a de facto national firearms registry,” said John Commerford, Executive Director of NRA-ILA. “On behalf of millions of NRA members and gun owners nationwide, we thank Representatives Moore, Hudson, and Barr for protecting our Second Amendment rights and our privacy.”
Speaking on his legislation, Representative Moore has said, “I’ve spent the better part of my short career in public service fighting financial institutions that push a political agenda. Let me be clear: any attempt to collect data on Americans simply exercising their God-given rights is wrong, and I won’t stand for it. We’ve seen how the Biden Administration pressured financial institutions to hand over data on their customers, and the possibility of a private database on gun owners falling into the hands of a future anti-gun administration is unacceptable.”
Representative Hudson, speaking on the bill said, “The American people are fed up with gun grabbing liberals’ attempts to encroach on their Constitutionally protected rights. I am proud to join Congressman Moore in introducing legislation to protect the freedom and privacy of law-abiding gun owners like you.”
Representative Barr said, “In America, the right to privacy and the right to keep and bear arms are fundamental. We must ensure that law-abiding citizens can make purchases without fear of unwarranted tracking or political discrimination. This legislation is about upholding our constitutional freedoms and preventing the misuse of financial data to target individuals exercising their Second Amendment rights.”
Representatives Moore, Hudson, and Barr introduced this bill with 24 of their Republican colleagues as original cosponsors. Your NRA-ILA will continue to update you as this important legislation works its way through the legislative process.
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