Sponsors (18)
The bill increases buyer and merchant privacy and reduces payment-service discrimination by eliminating a distinct firearms merchant classification, but it does so at the cost of weaker fraud and illicit-transaction detection and added compliance burdens for payment processors and regulators.
People who buy firearms — including people-with-disabilities and other cardholders — will have less merchant-level classification of firearm/ammunition purchases, reducing the ability of merchants or third parties to profile buyers and lowering privacy risks.
Small-business-owners (firearms merchants) will be less likely to face targeted payment monitoring or refusal tied to a distinct firearms merchant category, reducing the risk of losing or being constrained by payment services.
Reducing explicit merchant-level categorization for firearms decreases the amount of sensitive transaction data explicitly labeled as firearm-related, lowering overall privacy exposure for cardholders and taxpayers.
Financial institutions, payment processors, and law enforcement will have a harder time detecting and blocking fraud, money laundering, and illegal firearm-related transactions when firearms vendors are not separately coded, weakening fraud prevention and public safety efforts.
Payment processors and merchants may incur increased compliance and operational costs to change classification systems and update monitoring rules, which could raise costs for financial institutions and small businesses.
Regulators, researchers, and merchants will have reduced ability to compile sector-specific sales data needed for research, taxation, regulation, and enforcement when firearm sales aren't separately coded.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Stops banks, card issuers, networks, and other payment processors from using MCCs that separately identify firearms or ammunition merchants.
Prohibits banks, payment card networks, card issuers, acquirers, and other entities that facilitate or process credit card transactions from using merchant category codes (MCCs) that separately identify firearms merchants or ammunition merchants. Defines which companies are covered so that entities that authorize, clear, or settle card transactions must not assign or use MCCs that single out firearm- or ammunition-specific merchants.
Introduced February 12, 2025 by Andy Ogles · Last progress February 12, 2025