Establishing Guardrails to Protect Americans’ Privacy in Firearm Purchases

When Americans make a purchase at a firearm retailer, credit card companies can assign a specific merchant category code (MCC) to the transaction, identifying it as a firearm-related purchase. This policy has raised concerns that these codes could be weaponized to monitor or track law-abiding Americans exercising their constitutional rights. 

Some states, like Texas and Florida, recognize the threat to privacy posed by these codes and have banned the use of firearm retailer-specific MCCs; however, states like California and New York have instead mandated the use of these trackable MCCs.

To ensure Americans’ rights to privacy do not depend on their ZIP code, House Republicans are advancing legislation today to implement a national standard prohibiting firearm-specific MCCs and protecting law-abiding citizens’ financial data from being used to surveil lawful firearm purchases.

Rep. Riley Moore’s measure, H.R. 1181, the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act, would prevent the use of firearm-specific merchant category codes, establishing guardrails to ensure financial institutions and credit card companies are not coerced into surveilling customers during constitutionally protected purchases.

House Republicans remain committed to protecting Americans from overreaching surveillance, safeguarding consumer privacy, and defending Second Amendment rights nationwide.