Credit Card Firearm Purchase Codes Prevention Heads To Tennessee Governor
Image Credit: capitol.tn.gov
The Center Square [By Jon Styf] –
A bill designed to prevent credit card companies and banks from using a separate code to designate sales at firearms retailers is now headed to Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
The Tennessee Senate concurred on a drafting error fix from the House on Senate Bill 2223, which prevents banks and credit card companies from requiring those retailers to have a separate merchant category code to separate firearms purchases. The bill protects financial records of firearms purchases from being disclosed unless required by law.
Rep. Rusty Grills, R-Newbern, explained that in 2022 the International Organization of Standardization recommended that financial institutions begin using a unique merchant category code specifically for transactions at firearms stores.
Grills said the risk of this is that merchants could then identify those purchases as suspicious, leading to search warrants, questions and unauthorized surveillance.
Rep. Justin J. Pearson, D-Memphis, pointed out no banks in Tennessee made the code changes. Grills said that was because Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and a group of 27 attorneys general sent letters to merchants stating that the changes would not be enforced.
“If nobody is doing this in our state, the letter worked,” Pearson said, stating the Legislature should spend its time on more important matters.
Grills said the bill is necessary after a group of 43 members of Congress sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Treasury on March 27 attempting to get them to enforce the code changes.
The bill makes a violation of the merchant code ban up to a $10,000 civil penalty that results in an investigation from the attorney general.
About the Author: Jon Styf, The Center Square Staff Reporter – Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonStyf.
Boy Rep Pearson you think just because it hasn’t been done before, it want be. You’re a State Representative of your city and our State. You know better than that.
Wow Rep Pearson, you know better than that!
It’s all about the control. People need to be very careful of where they are using credit cards. This administration is laying the groundwork for the final destruction of your freedoms if the dems stay in charge. Don’t fall for the lies and free stuff. Nothing is ever free.
That grifter gets up and complains about every single bill that doesn’t ban guns. Doesn’t matter what the bill is, if it doesn’t ban guns, he gets in front of the camera and repeats the same exact lines. He needs to take his fake accent and go back to the communist state he came from.
There’s always an attack on 2nd Amendment rights from the Democrats and RINO’s in some way or another. As if they would be immune to the Tyranny it would bring on our Nation if we didn’t have it. Power corrupts, Absolute Power corrupts absolutely! Our forefathers gave us this Right for a reason; to protect us from enemies; foreign AND domestic. Only the enemies of this country have a problem with the 2nd Amendment. I would say to them, “move to a country without it, and do your Tyranny there, leave our country alone. I took an oath to uphold and protect our Constitution and Bill of Rights and that I will do.