Tomorrow, March 5th, the House Insurance & Commerce Committee will hear two bills related to firearm financial privacy: House Bill 1443 and House Bill 1509. Backed by the NRA, House Bill 1443 offers financial privacy protections for firearm owners and businesses. In contrast, House Bill 1509, though similar, lacks essential provisions to adequately protect firearm financial privacy for consumers and businesses in Arkansas. Please contact committee members by using the TAKE ACTION button below and ask them to SUPPORT House Bill 1443 and OPPOSE House Bill 1509!
House Bill 1443, The Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act, will prohibit the use of firearm and ammunition specific Merchant Category Codes, which could be used to track firearm and ammunition purchases and create a registry of lawful gun and ammunition buyers. This is an important protection for gun owners, protecting private purchasing data from abuse by third parties. Nineteen states have adopted similar legislation. For more information, click here.
Collecting firearm retailer financial transaction data amounts to surveillance and registration of law-abiding gun owners. Those promoting this scheme are in favor of firearm and gun owner registrations. Therefore, it should be assumed that the goal of this program is to share all collected firearm retailer MCC data with government authorities and potentially private third parties that may include gun control organizations and anti-gun researchers.
House Bill 1509, while similarly titled, lacks the necessary policies to protect lawful firearm owners and businesses. It fails to include critical provisions, such as prohibiting the use of firearm and ammunition-specific Merchant Category Codes by all financial institutions and lacks strong enforcement measures to safeguard Arkansans.
Please continue to check www.NRAILA.org and your email inbox for NRA-ILA alerts on the latest action items.
More Like This From Around The NRA
