Reps. Hudson, Moore, Barr Introduce Legislation to Stop Unconstitutional Tracking of Lawful Gun Purchases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Richard Hudson (R-NC), alongside Representative Riley Moore (R-WV) and Representative Andy Barr (R-KY), introduced the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act to ban the use of a Merchant Category Code (MCC) to track sales at gun stores.

"The American people are fed up with gun grabbing liberals' attempts to encroach on their Constitutionally protected rights," said Rep. Hudson. "I am proud to join Congressman Moore in introducing legislation to protect the freedom and privacy of law-abiding gun owners like you." 

“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," said Rep. Moore. “We’ve seen how the Biden Administration pressured financial institutions to hand over data on their customers, and the possibility of a private database of gun owners falling into the hands of a future anti-gun administration is unacceptable.”

“In America, the right to privacy and the right to keep and bear arms are fundamental,” said Rep.Barr. “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.”

"Anti-gunners have repeatedly tried to weaponize financial institutions to de-bank the firearms industry and undermine the Second Amendment," said Aidan Johnston, Director of Federal Affairs, Gun Owners of America. "The recent abuse of Merchant Category Codes to track gun owners is just the latest example of the violation of our privacy. Thank you to Representatives Moore, Hudson, and Barr for introducing this legislation to prohibit the tracking and backdoor registration of firearm and ammunition sales." 

“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 the NRA Institute for Legislative Action. “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.” 

“The Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act is an important bill to ensure that firearm and ammunition purchases are treated the same way as any other purchase rather than being arbitrarily singled out,” said Jeff Crane, President and CEO of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation. “The privacy of hunters, recreational shooters, and other firearm owners should be protected by financial institutions, just as any other type of transaction is protected, and we thank Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus Member Rep. Hudson for leading this legislation.”  

“The need to protect law-abiding gun owners from government intrusion into their legal and private firearm and ammunition purchases has never been greater," said Lawrence G. Keane, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation. “The Biden administration proved it was willing to ignore the law and use government pressure to coerce banks to illegally spy on Americans to create government watchlists. This legislation, introduced by Congressmen dedicated to preserving financial privacy and Second Amendment rights, would rein in federal overreach to use the private financial transactions of law-abiding citizens against them for political means. No American should be concerned that the federal government is employing this scheme, concocted by gun control cheerleaders, that weaponizes an individual’s finances and their free exercise of Second Amendment rights to wrongly identify them as a criminal-in-waiting. NSSF is grateful for this principled leadership to stand up for Constitutionally-protected rights and against special interests and big government lawmakers whose goal it is to monitor and deny lawful transactions, by law-abiding Americans.”

Read more about the bill in Washington Examiner and Breitbart News.

Background

• In September 2022, Congressman Hudson joined House Republicans in questioning the implementation of a new MCC created by the International Organization for Standardization to make it easier for authorities to track gun purchases.
• Following the March 2023 announcement of Visa, Mastercard, and American Express to pause the implementation of this new code, Congressman Hudson has continued to advocate for the rights of law-abiding firearm and ammunition owners.
• In February 2024, Congressman Hudson joined Chairwoman Stefanik and Congressman Barr in introducing the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act and received widespread support. 

For the full bill text, click here.

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