House Votes to Kill Gun Tracking

The House passed legislation Thursday that would prohibit banks and payment networks from treating a gun-store purchase differently than any other retail transaction.

Driving the news: H.R. 1181, the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act, cleared the House 221–201 on July 14. Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) sponsored the bill. NRA-ILA backed it. It now goes to the Senate.

Catch up quick:

• In 2022, banks and gun-control advocates pressured the International Organization for Standardization into creating MCC 5723 — a dedicated merchant category code for firearm and ammunition retailers.
• Before that, gun stores were classified alongside sporting goods and general merchandise. Normal retail.
• MCC 5723 doesn't track what you bought. It flags where you spent money and how much.

The problem with that last point is that it makes the code indiscriminate by design. A $2,000 charge at a gun store could be a rifle, a safe, an optic, a training class, or a range membership. The code doesn't know. It just drops every qualifying transaction into a searchable, flaggable, gun-related bucket.

"The implementation of Merchant Category Codes to surveil lawful purchases is nothing more than an ill-conceived attempt to create a de facto national firearms registry." — NRA-ILA Executive Director John Commerford

What the bill actually does:

• Bans payment networks from requiring gun retailers to use any code that identifies them as sellers of firearms, ammunition, or accessories
• Bars banks and processors from assigning such a code on their own
• Preempts state laws — overriding mandates already in place in California, Colorado, and New York

Yes, but: The enforcement mechanism has a real gap. If DOJ finds a violation, the offending company gets 30 days to fix it before the attorney general can seek a federal injunction. The bill creates no private right of action and sets no civil fines. A gun dealer wrongly coded under MCC 5723 can file a complaint — but can't sue for damages under this law. That matters a lot depending on who controls DOJ in a given administration.

The vote breakdown wasn't especially close, but it wasn't comfortable either. Five Democrats crossed over to support the bill. Two hundred voted to leave the tracking mechanism intact. One Republican — Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick — voted against it.

What's next: The Senate companion bill, S. 1715, is sitting in the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. House passage is real progress. It's not law yet.