Bill would ban credit card coding of gun and ammunition sales in SC
Guns are shown at Caso's Gun-A-Rama in Jersey City, New Jersey, which has been open since 1967. (Photo by Aristide Economopoulos/New Jersey Monitor)
COLUMBIA— Legislation advancing in the state House would ban credit card companies from tracking sales of guns or ammunition and ensure no government agency in South Carolina keeps a registry of gun owners.
Similar legislation has already been signed into law in other Republican-led states.
The bill, dubbed the 'Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act,' is set for discussion Tuesday by the House Judiciary Committee. It would leave enforcement to the state attorney general. Any government or company that ignores a warning to cease and desist would face a fine of up to $1,000 per violation.
'We wanted to prevent anything that would infringe on gun owners' rights,' the bill's lead sponsor, Rep. Bobby Cox, R-Greer, told the SC Daily Gazette after a House panel unanimously advanced the bill.
The bill has the backing of the chamber's GOP leaders. The 34 co-sponsors include House Speaker Murrell Smith and House Majority Leader Davey Hiott.
The proposal does not apply to gun ownership records kept during the 'regular course of a criminal investigation and prosecution.'
Legislation similar to the South Carolina proposal started popping up around the country after the International Organization for Standardization, a Switzerland-based group that creates international business standards, approved in September 2022 the creation of unique codes — called merchant category codes — for stores that sell guns and ammunition.
Businesses are coded for all sales made with a credit or debit card, whether at a restaurant, a clothing store or the grocery. In addition to banks using the codes to track rewards programs, the coding helps with business accounting systems and tax records.
Advocates that pushed for a separate code for gun stores, led by New York-based Amalgamated Bank, argued it was a safety measure that could reduce mass killings.
The killers in mass shootings such as the July 2012 Aurora, Colorado, movie theater; the June 2016 Orlando nightclub; and the 2017 Las Vegas music festival all bought thousands of dollars' worth of guns ahead of the massacres, according to a report by The New York Times.
Critics of the coding say law-abiding gun owners could be unfairly profiled and tracked as a result.
South Carolina's Alan Wilson was among 24 attorneys general nationwide who signed a letter to the heads of American Express, Mastercard and Visa less than two weeks after the international group approved codes for gun stores.
'Generating a 'list of gun buyers' creates the obvious risk that law-abiding consumers' information will be leaked, discovered, hacked, or otherwise obtained and misused by those who oppose Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights,' read the letter dated Sept. 20, 2022.
At least 17 states have passed laws similar to South Carolina's bill, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearm trade association. They include Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama. Legislators in North Carolina are considering a similar law.
The laws were initially preventive measures that didn't do anything, since banks hadn't adopted the coding.
But then California passed a law in September 2023 requiring banks and credit card companies to use the codes, followed by Colorado and New York. The codes must be assigned to gun stores in those states by May 1.
A bill that would ban the tracking nationwide was introduced last month in the U.S. House. Its 95 co-sponsors include Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina's Second District.
'It's a real issue that is out there,' Neil Rashley, chief attorney for the South Carolina Bankers Association, said last week. 'But it's kind of in flux.
With some states requiring the codes and others banning their use, Rashley said companies with national operations will likely have to hire extra staff to ensure they're following the rules for each state.
The bankers' association is not taking a position on the bill. Rashley said he's confident banks in South Carolina are not using the gun shop codes, nor do they have any plans to do so.
'We certainly understand your concerns, and we're not standing in opposition to it,' he said.
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