Congress Moving to Block Gun Purchase Tracking Causes a Major Media Meltdown

Someone get Andrew Ross Sorkin some Kleenex. He’s having a rough day.

Sorkin, who writes for The New York Times, is arguably the biggest supporter of the idea of implementing a firearm industry-specific Merchant Category Code to track lawful purchases and flag so-called “suspicious” firearm-related commerce.

Distraught over the passage of the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act last week by the U.S. House of Representatives, Sorkin immediately published his feelings. “In 2018, I wrote about common-sense ways the financial industry could help identify suspicious purchasing patterns before mass shootings occur.”

He continued to relay his disappointment in the House action on the bill, lazily blaming “politics.”

“The legislation is headed to the Senate. But a tool designed to help prevent deadly shootings has become entirely political,” Sorkin lamented.

Except it hasn’t. It wouldn’t. And it never was. In fact, the exact opposite is true. Advancing H.R. 1181 is a major step forward to protect law-abiding Americans and lawful exercisers of the Second Amendment from facing political attacks by rabid antigun, anti-Second Amendment activists not just in government, but also the boardrooms for many of the nation’s biggest banks.

NSSF praises the House passage of the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act and thanks U.S. Reps. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.), Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), Andy Barr (R-Ky.) and Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) for their strong leadership in getting this major firearm industry priority legislation across the finish line in the House.

Delusional Dragnet

Sorkin initially sketched out his dream of cutting off lawful gun purchases by throttling the use of credit cards in 2018, when he published a column titled, “How Banks Could Control Gun Sales If Washington Won’t.” NSSF warned of the dangerousness of this proposal. Swipe, insert chip or tap a credit card and it just simply wouldn’t work for those attempting to legally purchase a firearm or ammunition.

Sorkin’s folly was picked up and backed by all the usual gun control groups and antigun politicians who even introduced legislation that would require the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) to give guidance to banks so they could report “suspicious financial activity.” Not surprisingly, no one ever detailed what would constitute “suspicious activity.”

Banking executives cast doubt on Sorkin’s scheme, even stating it flat out wouldn’t work. Visa’s CEO Al Kelly even explained early on that Sorkin’s firearm industry MCC wouldn’t be effective in flagging purchases.

“If [Visa’s Chief Communications Officer] K.C. Kavanagh goes into a gun store and buys three thermoses and a tent, and you go in and buy a rifle and five rounds of ammunition, all I know is you both went to the same gun store… But I don’t know what you bought,” Kelly had said.

In Sorkin’s mind, all firearm-related purchases from any store in the country that lawfully sells them would be flagged. Whether it’s a new, first-time gun buyer, a seasoned hunter or someone purchasing several boxes of ammunition to go to the neighborhood range to train. What in Sorkin’s mind would be helpful about flagging those purchases as “suspicious”?

Nothing. The point is to throttle and suffocate lawful Second Amendment activities and to use activist banks to do so. That’s all Sorkin’s plan is about.

The Good News

As we’ve seen, during the administration of former President Joe Biden, bureaucrats, activist gun control groups and antigun politicians alike did everything they could to restrict Second Amendment rights and suffocate the firearm industry, which the former president deemed “the enemy.” That included attempts by antigun Democratic majorities in the House and U.S. Senate. Fortunately, those attempts failed to lead to new laws implementing and forcing banks to use the firearm industry-specific MCC. Thankfully so, as we saw financial discrimination and Operation Chokepoint 2.0 run ramped during the Biden administration.

Now, the tables have turned and the President Donald Trump administration has vowed to protect Second Amendment rights. He’s carried through on his promises as well, announcing presidential executive orders to eliminate banking and financial institutions’ previous habits of discriminating against lawful businesses, including firearm and ammunition businesses.

But presidential executive orders only last until the next administration, which might be of the opposite party and which might announce its own executive orders undoing the good work of President Trump. That’s why it is critical that legislation be passed to permanently bar the implementation of the firearm industry MCC.

With the House voting to advance the bill, by a bipartisan vote of 221-201, prohibiting a gun industry MCC is one step closer to reality.

More Work Ahead

After Reps. Moore, Hudson, Barr and Stefanik helped usher the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act across the House finish line, there’s still one more step before the law could be enacted by President Trump. It must pass the U.S. Senate.

Last year, U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) introduced the companion Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act legislation in the upper chamber. There are currently just 26 Senate cosponsors on S. 1715 right now, which equates to only about half of the Republican (i.e. pro-Second Amendment) caucus of senators officially supporting the bill. It’s awaiting action in the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

If the U.S. Senate were able to pass the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act, either as a standalone bill or possibly attached to some other banking-related policy, it’s clear from his proactive agenda already demonstrated that President Trump would sign the bill into law. That would be a major firearm industry victory. NSSF isn’t standing idly by either and is working hard to make sure our senate friends know how important this legislation is.

There are only about three months left until the November elections and five months until a new Congress is sworn in in January 2027. Who knows which party will have the majority in either chamber. With limited legislative days to work until the end of the year, the stakes to putting an end to the firearm industry MCC are high.

House passage of H.R. 1181 is significant. But make no mistake—there’s still work to do. And judging by the meltdown from Sorkin, gun control allies are worried the Senate might actually get it down.

Let’s hope so.

 

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.