New Hampshire Joins States Pushing Back Against Credit Card Codes for Gun-Related Purchases

On Friday, July 12th, Governor Chris Sununu (R-New Hampshire) signed HB 1186, “an act relative to firearm purchaser’s privacy,” into law. Thanks to the tireless work of leading New Hampshire gun rights advocate Rep. Jason Janvrin (R-Rockingham District 40) and the strong support of NRA members, New Hampshire becomes the seventeenth state to protect the privacy of law-abiding gun buyers by prohibiting financial institutions from collecting and misusing their personal information. The NRA and its members thank Governor Chris Sununu, Rep. Jason Janvrin, and pro-gun New Hampshire lawmakers for supporting Granite Staters’ Second Amendment rights.

In the Fall of 2022, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved a Merchant Category Code (MCC) for firearm retailers. MCCs are used by payment processors (like Visa and Mastercard) and other financial services companies to categorize transactions. MCCs enable payment processors and banks to identify, monitor, and collect data on certain types of transactions. Before the ISO decision, firearm retailers fell under the MCC for sporting goods stores or miscellaneous retail.

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.

HB 1186 prohibits the assigning of a specific merchant category code to the sale of firearms, ammunition, or firearm accessories, and provides a civil penalty for violations. This critical legislation protects gun-owners privacy and ensures that bad actors cannot use credit and debit card transactions to create a gun-registry or block cardholders from making gun-related purchases.

—Courtesy NRA-ILA