Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed legislation last week making Alabama the 15th state to block credit card companies from tracking gun and gun-related purchases.
The news was reported on May 13, 2024, by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF).
NSSF noted the new law is called the Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act.
The Act “prohibits financial institutions from requiring the use of a firearm code, also known as a Merchant Category Code (MCC), from being assigned to firearm and ammunition purchases at retail when using a credit card.”
NSSF further detailed some of the law’s provisions:
The law also forbids discriminating against a firearm retailer as a result of the assigned or non-assignment of a firearm code and disclosing the protected financial information. Additionally, the law prohibits keeping or causing to be kept any list, record or registry of private firearm ownership.
While Alabama has been working to protect gun owners from financial data collections related to firearms, California passed a law requiring credit card companies to collect data on firearm purchases in the state.
On February 13, 2024, Breitbart News reported that Visa, Mastercard, and American Express were implementing codes to track gun and gun-related purchases, per a California law taking effect in 2025.
CBS News reported that the new merchant code will be used to comply with a “California law that will allow banks to potentially track suspicious gun purchases and report them to law enforcement.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, and a pro-staffer for Pulsar Night Vision. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Beef is his favorite vegetable. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at
