Congress moves to hide gun purchases from payment processors

What it does

This bill prohibits payment card networks and processors from assigning a special merchant category code (MCC) that distinguishes firearms retailers from general merchandise or sporting goods retailers. It bars the use of firearm-specific transaction tracking codes, effectively preventing payment processors from separately identifying gun and ammunition purchases. The bill empowers the Attorney General to investigate violations and sue to enforce compliance, but creates no private right of action for citizens to sue directly.

Why we flagged it

The bill's core function is to prevent financial institutions from using merchant category codes that distinguish firearm sales from other retail categories. While framed as a privacy measure, it operationally restricts data classification and tracking capabilities that payment processors and regulators might use for compliance, fraud detection, or consumer protection purposes.

What the text implies

• Prevents payment processors from separately tracking firearm and ammunition purchases, which may impede fraud detection, money laundering investigations, and compliance with federal firearms regulations that rely on transaction data.
• Preemption of state and local laws removes local governments' ability to require transaction transparency or implement their own financial oversight of firearm sales, centralizing control at the federal level.
• The 'no private right of action' clause means individual consumers cannot sue payment processors for violations, leaving enforcement solely to the Attorney General—a significant asymmetry in accountability.
• By conflating firearm retailers with 'general merchandise' or 'sporting goods' retailers, the bill obscures the distinction between firearm sales and other retail, potentially complicating regulatory compliance and consumer financial literacy.

Who it affects

The bill restricts the ability of payment processors and financial institutions to track and categorize firearm purchases separately from other retail transactions. This reduces transparency in financial data collection and prevents consumers from understanding how their transaction data is being classified and used. It also preempts state and local laws that might have required such transparency, centralizing power in the federal government and removing local accountability mechanisms.

Who stands to gain

• payment card networks
• payment processors
• firearms retailers
• covered entities processing firearm transactions

Named in the bill

Attorney General, payment card networks, covered entities, firearms retailers, merchant category codes, International Organization for Standardization, 18 USC Section 921

Where it stands

32 cosponsors: 32 Republicans.

• May 12, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
• May 12, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,990,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 30 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.

Bill Hagerty, the sponsor, reported $1,618,141 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• National Shooting Sports Foundation — $1,990,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 17, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.