Hagerty Introduces Bill Banning Tracking of Gun Store Purchases

Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) introduced a bill last week looking to protect gun store purchases from being tracked.

The Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act would halt Merchant Category Codes from tracking gun purchases.

In 2022, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) created a code for firearm retailers to use when someone buys firearms or ammunition.

The ISO is an international non-governmental industry that publishes standards for various industries. Many of America’s top credit card companies and financial institutions follow the standards ISO sets.

This is the second time Hagerty introduced this piece of legislation. However, last year, the bill never made it to the Senate floor.

Hagerty has 16 other Republican co-sponsors of this bill.

If this bill becomes law, the United States Attorney General would be able to investigate alleged violations. A written notice would be provided to the payment processor if the attorney general found a violation of the law.

The payment processor would have 30 days of the written notice to address the situation. If it is not resolved in this time span, the attorney general can bring legal action.

Addressing Merchant Category Codes, Hagerty said they should not be used “to track and surveil gun store customers.

“If this alarming overreach isn’t stopped, radical leftists won’t just target gun owners—they’ll weaponize the financial system against anyone who makes a purchase that doesn’t conform to their agenda,” the senator said.

“This legislation is critical to preventing the politicization of MCC codes and securing the civil liberties of law-abiding Americans and the Second Amendment,” he added.

Representative Riley Moore (R-WV-02), who is introducing companion legislation in the House, said “any attempt to collect data on Americans simply exercising their God-given rights is wrong.”

A proponent of the bill, National Shooting Sports Foundation Senior Vice President Lawrence Keane, said gun control advocates have admitted these merchant codes are meant to “monitor and approve firearm and ammunition purchases.”

“Senator Hagerty’s bill would prohibit the government from creating watchlists or determining when law-abiding citizens may exercise their Second Amendment rights,” he said.

Keane added that Americans should not be concerned with banks or the federal government implementing Orwellian tactics to monitor people who legally “purchase firearms or ammunition products.”

“Americans should worry about what’s in their wallet, not who’s in their wallet,” he explained.

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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at [email protected].
Photo “Gun Store” by Andrew. CC BY-SA 2.0.