Gun-control extremists are using every possible avenue to disarm law-abiding sportsmen and gun owners, including how to uncover personal identifying information on who owns firearms in America. The newest tactic on this front is to track credit card purchases of firearms and ammunition. Gun control fanatics like New York Attorney General Letitia James and California Attorney General Rob Bonta are looking forward to embracing this new “tool” so they can focus their efforts on legal purchasers of firearms and ammunition in their ongoing quest to destroy our firearms freedom.
In September 2022, the International Organizations for Standardization (ISO) approved the creation of a new merchant code for firearm retailers to use when their customers use a credit card to purchase firearms and ammunition. The big credit card companies like American Express, Mastercard and Visa are already working to implement this new merchant code. Credit card companies have always used merchant codes, but previous codes were general with firearm store sales listed as general merchandise or sporting goods. The new codes are specific to firearms and ammunition.
Pro-gun legislators are pushing back. On Thursday, April 20, at 11 a.m., the House Banking Committee is scheduled to hear House Bill 564, the Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act, a bill to prohibit financial institutions from using a firearms code in connection with a payment card transaction involving a firearms retailer located in the state and prohibits financial institutions from knowingly maintaining a record of individuals residing in the state who own a firearm(s).
Credit card companies have decided to delay the implementation of the new MCC because of the various credit-card privacy bills introduced across the nation. But sportsmen must continue the push to pass bills like HB 564 to ensure credit card companies never implement the new merchant category code.
Please use our Take Action button to email the members of the committee and urge them to protect sportsmen and gun owners’ privacy by supporting HB 564.
Don’t forget to share this email with your family, friends and fellow sportsmen and urge them to contact the members of the House Banking Committee to support HB 564.
About the Sportsmen’s Alliance: The Sportsmen’s Alliance protects and defends America’s wildlife conservation programs and the pursuits – hunting, fishing and trapping – that generate the money to pay for them. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation is responsible for public education, legal defense and research. Its mission is accomplished through several distinct programs coordinated to provide the most complete defense capability possible. Stay connected to Sportsmen’s Alliance: Online, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
