Gun owners in Georgia can now breathe a little easier after Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed HB 1018, the Second Amendment Privacy Act, into law last week. Georgia is now one of 14 states that is actively protecting the Second Amendment financial privacy of its residents.
For years now, banks have been illegally requiring a Merchant Category Code (MCC) to be attached to any purchase of a firearm or ammunition when using a credit card. This is a clear constitutional violation and a direct violation of federal law that prohibits the creation of a list of firearm owners in the US.
The new Georgia law does several things to protect the financial privacy of gun owners. Banks are now forbidden from discriminating against gun stores by de-banking them on behalf of the Democrat Party. Financial institutions are also prohibited from disclosing the private purchase information of their customers to law enforcement without a warrant.
The law also prohibits banks from keeping any list, registry, or record of private firearm ownership. One of the ways that the ATF has gotten around federal laws prohibiting a registry of firearms ownership is by having the banks create the list for them. As we learned in the wake of January 6th, the banks have no qualms about betraying their own customers when federal law enforcement agencies ask for all their financial transactions.
“Citizens in Georgia won’t worry that ‘woke’ Wall Street banks, credit card companies, and payment processors will collude with government entities to spy on their private finances to illegally place them on gun control watchlists,” said Lawrence G. Keane, General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF). The NSSF was instrumental in working with Republicans in the Georgia legislature to draft and pass the new law.
