A measure introduced in the Missouri state Senate on February 9 is designed to protect the privacy of lawful gun owners and gun purchasers in the Show Me State.
Senate Bill 216, the “Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act,” was introduced by Republican state Sen. Jill Carter and presented in the Senate Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety Committee. The measure would prohibit government entities from keeping a list, record or registry of privately-owned firearms.
Records may be maintained during a criminal investigation and prosecution of gun ownership. It also bans credit card networks from using a merchant category code (MCC) to differentiate firearm sales from other transactions.
At issue is a relatively new MCC for gun purchases adopted by the International Organization for Standardization in early 2023. MCCs are used by payment processors (like Visa and Mastercard) and other financial services companies to categorize transactions. Prior to the creation of the specific gun code, firearms retailers were classified under the MCC as sporting goods stores or miscellaneous retail.
When the new code is used, credit card companies and other payment processors can tell that the purchases were firearms, creating a de facto gun registry. The U.S. Senate is currently considering a measure that would ban use of the gun-specific MCC nationwide.
Missouri bill sponsor Sen. Carter told the Senate committee that the measure is critical to lawful gun owners.
“This bill draws a clear line,” she said during the hearing on the Bill. “Lawful gun ownership must never be treated as inherently suspicious.”
Along with banning record-keeping on firearms, the measure also gives recourse to those who feel their rights have been violated under the proposed law.
“A firearms retailer physically located in this state whose business was the subject of an alleged violation of this section or a customer who transacted at a firearms retailer physically located in this state whose business was the subject of an alleged violation of this section, may petition the attorney general to investigate an alleged violation of this section,” the bill states. “If an individual or entity is found to be in violation of this section and fails to cease the violating activity after the expiration of thirty calendar days from the receipt of written notice by the attorney general’s office, then the attorney general shall pursue an injunction against the individual or entity alleged to be in violation of this section.”
Representatives from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) were also at the hearing testifying in favor of the measure.
“This is stuff that if I talked about seven years ago, you’d throw me in a padded room and call me a conspiracy theorist,” NSSF representative Darren LaSorte said. “It’s happening now, and what this bill does is simply prohibit it from happening in the state of Missouri.”
Twenty other states have passed Second Amendment privacy legislation in recent years to protect gun owners and gun sellers.