On Monday, House Bill 1443, providing financial privacy protections for firearm and ammunition purchases, failed a voice vote in the House Insurance Committee. We appreciate the support of Representatives McGrew, Johnson, McCollum and Achor, however their efforts alone were not enough to garner enough votes to get out of committee. Earlier this week, the Arkansas Legislature passed HB 1509 that purports to provide financial privacy protections to gun owners but lacks the necessary enforcement mechanism to provide the protections contained in HB 1443. We also want to express our gratitude to Representative Aaron Pilkington, the sponsor, and Senator Clint Penzo, the Senate sponsor.
House Bill 1443, The Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act, prohibits 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. Additionally, HB 1443 provides a vigorous enforcement mechanism that allows the Arkansas Attorney General to pursue legal remedies that enable firearm retailers or customers to seek a court injunction for violations. 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.
Please stay tuned to the NRA-ILA website and your inbox for update as this critical legislation progresses.
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