On Thursday, November 2, at 10:30 a.m., the Assembly Consumer Protection Committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on Assembly Bill 468, a bill to protect the credit card privacy rights of sportsmen.

Gun control extremists are using every possible avenue to disarm law-abiding sportsmen and gun owners, including how to uncover personal identifying information on who owns firearms in America.  The latest tactic is to track credit card purchases of firearms and ammunition.  Gun control fanatics like New York Attorney General Letitia James and California Attorney General Rob Bonta are looking forward to embracing this new “tool” so they can focus their efforts on legal purchasers of firearms and ammunition in their ongoing quest to destroy our hunting heritage and firearm freedom.

In September of 2022, the International Organizations for Standardization (ISO) approved the creation of a new merchant category code (MCC) for firearm retailers to use when their customers use a credit card to purchase firearms and ammunition. Credit card companies have always used merchant category codes, but previous codes were general, with firearm store sales listed as general merchandise or sporting goods. The new codes are specific to firearms and ammunition. The big credit card companies like American Express, Mastercard, and Visa have already decided to pause the implementation of MCCs.

Pro-gun legislators in several states have already introduced and passed legislation protecting the privacy of sportsmen and gun owners purchasing firearms and ammunition with their credit cards, and now it is Wisconsin’s turn.   AB 468 prohibits payment settlement entities, merchant acquiring entities, and third-party settlement organizations from assigning MCCs or otherwise classifying merchants of firearms or ammunition separately from general merchandise or sporting goods retailers. The bill also states that the Department of Justice (DOJ) may not
maintain a list of firearm purchasers based on information from background checks
that DOJ performs, and that no governmental entity may maintain a list of firearm
owners.

Please use our Take Action button to email the members of the committee urging them to protect the privacy rights of Wisconsin’s sportsmen and support AB 468.

Don’t forget to share this alert with your family, friends, and fellow sportsmen asking them also to contact the members of the committee urging them to support AB 468.

About the Sportsmen’s Alliance: The Sportsmen’s Alliance protects and defends America’s wildlife conservation programs and the pursuits – hunting, fishing and trapping – that generate the money to pay for them. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation is responsible for public education, legal defense and research. Its mission is accomplished through several distinct programs coordinated to provide the most complete defense capability possible. Stay connected to Sportsmen’s Alliance: Online, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.