Why It Matters: Gun issues and hunting issues are fundamentally intertwined, and when attacks on firearms are made in a legislature, it is important for sportsmen and women to take notice. Legislation looking to regulate firearms and firearms owners are often used as vectors of attack for other issues affecting our hunting traditions and culture. When it comes to tracking financial transactions during the purchase of firearms and ammunition, not only are there Second Amendment implications, but there are serious privacy implications as well. Further, there is a legitimate concern that a financial institution, or any state government obliging financial institutions to share the data with them, will use the purchasing data against hunters and gun owners in some way, up to and including freezing their accounts, cancelling them altogether, or identifying them as a gun owner following a gun prohibition or confiscation.
Highlights:
- The 2024 session of the Utah Legislature came to an end on Friday, March 1.
- Utah House Bill 406, entitled “Firearms Financial Transaction Amendments,” has passed both the Utah House and Senate and has been sent to Governor Spencer Cox.
- HB406 prohibits financial institutions from using firearm specific merchant category codes by payment processors, which can be used to track the purchasing behavior of hunters and gun owners.
- Governor Cox is a member of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation’s (CSF) Governors Sportsmen’s Caucus (GSC), and is expected to sign HB 406 into law.
- CSF has been working with the Utah Sportsmen’s Caucus on this legislation, as well as members of the Governor’s staff. CSF has sent Governor Cox a letter of support, urging him to sign HB406.
The Utah Legislature adjourned for the 2024 session last week, on Friday, March 1, after passing HB 406, a bill that gives gun owners and hunters critical financial privacy protections. GSC Member Governor Spencer Cox will soon have the opportunity to sign this bill into law, protecting countless Utahns’ Second Amendment and privacy rights.
Less than two years ago, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved a new Merchant Category Code (MCC) specifically for firearm retailers. Before this change, firearms retailers fell under the general MCC for sporting goods or miscellaneous retail. MCCs are used by banks, financial services companies, and payment processors, like Visa and Mastercard, to categorize transactions made with credit and debit cards. MCCs enable these institutions and payment processors to identify, monitor, and collect data on transactions. With a new category that singles out firearms, ammunition, and firearms accessory purchases, any related purchase made by gun owners and hunters (or anyone else purchasing non-firearm products at a firearms or sporting goods retailer) can now be tracked.
Introduced by Utah Sportsmen’s Caucus Member Rep. Cory Maloy (R-HD52), HB 406 will protect the personal privacy of hunters and gun owners when purchasing firearms, firearm parts, ammunition, and accessories with their credit or debit card, by prohibiting the use of these new firearm specific MCCs in Utah. Already mandated in states like California, we know that those in favor of firearm and firearm owner registries and bans wish to use the new MCC to enact their anti-gun and anti-sportsmen agenda because it provides an essential tool in identifying who owns guns.
Utah’s efforts to protect its law-abiding hunters and gun owners from this new form of surveillance is commendable and should be used as an example for state legislatures nationwide.
