Privacy bill aims to stop financial institutions from creating a backdoor registry of law-abiding gun owners
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation designed to prevent credit card companies from tracking firearm and ammunition purchases through special merchant category codes, delivering a major victory for gun owner privacy.
H.R. 1181, the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act, would prohibit payment card networks from requiring or assigning merchant category codes that uniquely identify firearms retailers, preventing banks and credit card companies from singling out lawful gun purchases.
Reports suggest that the codes create the framework for a financial surveillance system that could be used to monitor or catalog the purchasing habits of law-abiding Americans without their knowledge or consent.
The legislation passed the House by a vote of 221-201 and now heads to the Senate.
Gun rights supporters have long warned that while merchant category codes do not identify individual firearms purchased, they can be used to flag transactions at gun stores, opening the door to government requests for financial records or other forms of surveillance.
The National Association for Gun Rights has consistently opposed efforts to use the financial system as a tool for monitoring lawful firearm ownership, arguing that exercising a Constitutional right should never subject Americans to additional government scrutiny.
For many Second Amendment supporters, the issue extends beyond firearms, raising broader concerns about whether private financial institutions should be allowed to track Constitutionally-protected activity on behalf of government officials or political interests.
If enacted, the legislation would establish nationwide protections against firearm-specific purchase tracking and block what supporters describe as a backdoor gun registry built through the banking system.
Read more at The Truth About Guns.
