The House Republican introduced legislation on Tuesday to prohibit financial institutions from using electronic transactions codes to track purchases of ammunition and firearms.

These codes, also known as Merchant Category Codes, are used by financial institutions to organize information on different types of purchases. Gun rights advocates are concerned that it could be used as a way to create a list of gun owners.

Rep. Riley M. Moore, of West Virginia who introduced the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act, which would bar MCCs from handling gun and ammunition transactions, has said that banks and credit card firms should not be allowed to collect data about gun owners.

Moore stated, “I have spent most of my career fighting against financial institutions who push a political agenda.” “Let’s be clear: any attempt to collect information on Americans who are simply exercising their God given rights is wrong and I will not stand for it.

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He attributed the pressure put on financial institutions by the Biden administration to provide data about their customers.

He said: “The idea that a future antigun administration could have a private list of gun owners is inacceptable.”

The bill of Mr. Moore is expected to pass the House, but will face a steep climb in order to reach the 60 vote threshold in the Senate.

There are 26 co-sponsors of the bill.

Rep. Richard Hudson, of North Carolina, who is the primary co-sponsor said, “The American people are tired of gun-grabbing liberals trying to infringe on their Constitutionally-protected rights.”

Last year, Republican-led states, including Florida, Idaho and Mississippi, as well as North Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, Montana and Montana, passed legislation that prohibits the government from violating financial privacy of consumers when they purchase firearms and ammo.

These states rushed to pass legislation in January 2024 when GOP legislators showed that the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network used the MCC to spy on Americans’ gun purchases.

FinCEN is policing financial transactions to fight terrorist money laundering.

The Republican Congress has been looking at new federal laws that would mimic the state laws of Florida and other states.

Several Democratic-led states, however, have taken the opposite direction.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law requiring the use of a firearm-retailer-specific MCC. Colorado is also considering similar measures.

The idea of a firearm-retailer-specific MCC sprang from New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin, who suggested it in 2018 following the Parkland, Florida, mass shooting. He suggested that credit card companies and banks should develop a code to track gun transactions in stores that sell guns.

He suggested that credit card purchases be restricted. Gun control advocates in the House of Representatives and Senate, as well as Democratic legislators, embraced this idea.