Only 5 Democrats Voted For Bill That Would Ban Tracking Gun Purchases

The House of Representatives passed legislation Tuesday to safeguard the privacy of law-abiding citizens who purchase firearms, with nearly all Democrats voting against the measure.

The bill, H.R. 1181, also known as the “Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act,” prohibits payment card networks from assigning specific codes to track lawful gun transactions or to identify firearm retailers; the measure passed with a 221-201 vote, with support from only five Democrats. The legislation was a response to the implementation of a specified merchant category code (MCC), a multi-digit code used to classify merchants, for firearms dealers in September 2022.

Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, Don Davis of North Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine and Adam Gray of California supported final passage of the bill, but joined their fellow Democrats in supporting a “motion to recommit.”

“The Second Amendment is not a second-class right. Americans should never have their lawful firearm purchases tracked by financial institutions or payment processors,” Republican West Virginia Rep. Riley Moore said in a statement posted on X. “The creation of a separate merchant category code for gun stores at the behest of the Democrat-affiliated Amalgamated Bank opens the door to creating an unconstitutional backdoor gun registry and discrimination against law-abiding gun owners.”

“My bill stops this dangerous overreach, protects consumers’ financial privacy, and ensures that a backdoor federal gun registry can never be created through credit card transaction data,” Moore continued. “I’m proud the House has acted to defend both the Second Amendment and Americans’ right to privacy.”