On Friday, February 2, at 10 a.m., in room 202-204, the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on House Bill 1186, a bill to protect the credit card privacy rights of sportsmen.
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 latest 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 of 2022, the International Organizations for Standardization (ISO) approved the creation of a new merchant category code (MCC) for firearm retailers to use when their customers use a credit card to purchase firearms and ammunition. 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. The big credit card companies like American Express, Mastercard, and Visa have already decided to pause the implementation of MCCs.
Pro-gun legislators in several states have already introduced and passed legislation on the topic and now it is New Hampshire’s turn. HB 1186 prohibits a person or entity involved in facilitating or processing an electronic payment transaction and licensed to do business in this state, including a payment card issuer or payment card network, from assigning to a merchant or requiring a merchant to use a firearms code. The bill also states for the purposes of the sale of firearms, ammunition for use in firearms, and firearms accessories, a firearms retailer may not provide a firearms code to a payment card issuer or payment card network and may only use or be assigned a merchant category code for general merchandise retailers or sporting goods retailers.
Please use our Take Action button to email the members of the committee urging them to protect New Hampshire’s sportsmen and support HB 1186.
Don’t forget to share this alert with your family, friends, and fellow sportsmen urging them also to contact the members of the committee urging them to support HB 1186.
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.
