Iowa Governor signed into law the “Second Amendment Privacy Act,” protecting the privacy and sensitive financial information of gun purchasers in the state. With this act, Iowa joins a dozen other states with laws safeguarding the Second Amendment financial privacy of their citizens.
The law prohibits financial institutions from requiring the use of firearm-specific Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) when processing firearm and ammunition purchases using credit cards. It also forbids discrimination against firearm retailers based on the assignment or non-assignment of MCCs and prohibits the disclosure of protected financial information.
Additionally, the law prohibits keeping or causing to be kept any list, record, or registry of private firearm ownership. This measure is designed to prevent the creation of shadow gun registries by entities such as “woke” Wall Street banks that may attempt to collect private financial information for political exploitation.
The Second Amendment Privacy Act is a response to concerns raised about the potential misuse of financial data by corporate financial service providers and unlawful government search and seizure of legal and private financial transactions. The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) had previously collected the credit card purchase history of individuals who purchased firearms and ammunition in the days surrounding the January 6th Capitol riot without a warrant, raising Fourth Amendment concerns.
The idea of a firearm-retailer specific MCC was initially proposed by antigun columnist and Amalgamated Bank, which has been accused of pushing a radical agenda and bankrolling anti-gun politicians. NSSF has called on Congress to investigate Amalgamated Bank’s role in manipulating the ISO standard setting process.
Iowa joins a growing number of states, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah, that have enacted laws protecting citizens’ Second Amendment privacy. Other states are considering similar legislation, and a bill has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives to address the issue at the federal level.
