(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Three House Republicans have introduced a bill that would restrict corporations and government agencies from tracking gun purchases made by law-abiding Americans.
The Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act—introduced last week by Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., alongside Reps. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., and Andy Barr, R-Ariz.—would ban the use of a Merchant Category Code, or MCC, to track sales at gun stores.
The legislation follows revelations that the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN—created to combat issues such as international money laundering—urged banks to search their databases for terms such as “MAGA” and “Trump” to find potential domestic extremists. Additionally, FinCEN told banks that they could spot potential “lone wolf” mass shooters by using MCC codes to flag purchases from stores such as Dick’s Sporting Goods.
“FinCEN distributed slides, prepared by a financial institution, explaining how other financial institutions can use MCC codes to detect customers whose transactions may reflect ‘potential active shooters, [and] who may include dangerous International Terrorists / Domestic Terrorists / Homegrown Violent Extremists (‘Lone Wolves’),” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said in a letter last month to former FinCEN official Noah Bishoff.
“For example, the slides instruct financial institutions to query for transactions using certain MCC codes such as ‘3484: Small Arms,’ ‘5091: Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies,’ and the keywords ‘Cabela’s,’ and ‘Dick’s Sporting Goods,’ among several others.”
Jordan noted in his letter that the above transactions would be protected by the Second Amendment, and have no apparent nexus to criminality.
Stefanik said in a press release on Friday that her bill would end such activity described by Jordan once and for all.
“The tracking of gun purchases is a violation and infringement on the Constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans,” she said.
“I share the concern of law-abiding gun owners across our nation that have voiced their fear that such tactics will work to serve the radical Left’s anti-gun agenda. I will always stand up for our Second Amendment rights as Americans and provide a critical check to any entity attempting to encroach on our liberties.”
The legislation has been well-received by Second Amendment groups.
“The Merchant Category Code for firearms retailers is nothing more than a scheme to surveil law-abiding gun owners, and the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act would protect private purchasing information from abuse by third parties,” said Randy Kozuch, Executive Director of the NRA-ILA.
“On behalf of the NRA’s millions of freedom-loving members, we applaud Rep. Stefanik for championing this legislation to protect the right to privacy for gun owners nationwide.”
However, it’s not just gun purchases being tracked by corporations and the government.
FinCEN has also warned banks that indicators of extremism include “transportation charges, such as bus tickets, rental cars, or plane tickets, for travel to areas with no apparent purpose,” as well as “the purchase of books (including religious texts) and subscriptions to other media containing extremist views.”
Moreover, retired FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst George Hill revealed last year that Bank of America provided a trove of data about January 6 protestors to the FBI—voluntarily and without a warrant.
Hill said that the financial institution “voluntarily and without any legal process” funneled to the agency “a list of individuals who had made transactions in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area with a BoA credit or debit card between January 5 and January 7, 2021.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
