Leading gun safety groups, including Brady, Community Justice,
Everytown for Gun Safety, GIFFORDS, Guns Down America, and Newtown
Action Alliance, sent the House a letter to urge Members to vote ``no''
on this harmful legislation.
  In the letter that was sent to me, they said: ``We write in strong
opposition to H.R. 1181, the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act. This
bill would make it easier for mass shooters, gun traffickers, and even
terrorists to abuse our financial systems to stockpile firearms and
ammunition undetected.''
  They go on to note that between 2007 and 2018, credit cards were used
to finance at least eight major mass shootings. One of these included
the shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where 49 people
were killed and nearly 60 more were injured a decade ago last month, in
June 2016.''
  Now, listen to this: Just days before the shooter opened fire, his
internet search history included the terms ``credit card unusual
spending,'' ``FBI,'' and ``why banks stop your purchases.''
  He had opened six new credit card accounts in the 8 months prior, and
12 days before the shooting, he spent more than $26,000 on things like
a rifle, a semiautomatic pistol, several large magazines, and thousands
of rounds of ammunition. Before this, his average monthly spending on
his single card was $1,500.
  None of the credit card operators, payment processors, or banks were
alerted to the types of transactions being undertaken, and they did not
notify law enforcement officials about these purchases.
  We don't know for sure, but had these MCC codes been in place for gun
shops back then, a financial institution would have been empowered to
report these suspicious credit card purchases to law enforcement.

                              {time}  1530

  Americans are tired of the senseless gun violence and want Congress
to do something to curb it.
  Unfortunately, this bill goes in the opposite direction and would
implement a ban on such merchant reporting on the Federal level and
would literally preempt existing State laws like those in California,
New York, and Colorado.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this bill, and I
reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman
from West Virginia (Mr. Moore), who is the sponsor of this bill.
  Mr. MOORE of West Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my
bill, H.R. 1181, the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act. My bill
preserves two fundamental rights: the right to privacy and the right to
bear arms. Americans should not be forced to disclose to payment
processors when they buy firearms.
  The bill preserves Americans' rights by prohibiting the creation of a
separate merchant category code for firearms. This would, of course,
become a de facto gun registry. The bill also preempts harmful State
laws and gives the Attorney General authority to take any bank or
payment processor that assigns or requires a separate code to Federal
court.
  For too long, the American people have had their rights undermined by
the radical left. The bill's premise is simple: no gun registries,
period. In fact, this very body has twice prohibited these unjust
registries, once in 1986 and again in 1993, to prohibit the left from
destroying Americans' rights.
  However, the gun-grabbing left never stops trying. In 2021, the
progressive Amalgamated Bank lobbied the International Organization for
Standardization to create a separate merchant category code for firearm
retailers to advance a backdoor gun registry. Previously, these
retailers had always been accurately categorized as miscellaneous
retail stores or sporting goods stores.
  Amalgamated Bank was hell-bent on tracking firearm purchases. It
pressured a faceless, unaccountable, foreign standards body in Geneva
to stand up a new merchant category code explicitly targeting American
gun owners and American businesses. When I was State treasurer in West
Virginia, we said ``no'' to the gun-grabbing progressive bank
partnering with a European NGO destroying American rights.
  Under my leadership as State treasurer, West Virginia enacted one of
the first bans on separate merchant category codes for firearms
retailers, protecting the privacy of our State's gun owners. Nineteen
States after that followed suit.
  However, a patchwork of State regulations is not enough. California,
Colorado, and New York currently mandate that firearm stores have a
separate merchant category code, creating a de facto registry in some
of the most populous States in our country. This cannot be allowed to
stand. We have already seen the Biden administration pressure financial
institutions to hand over data on their customers. A private database
of gun owners falling into the hands of a future anti-gun
administration is a threat that we cannot accept.
  Our God-given right to own a firearm does not stop at the border of
blue States.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues, Representatives Barr and Hudson,
for their work on this bill. I also thank Chairman Hill for getting it
across the finish line. I also thank Representative Stefanik for her
leadership on this issue.
  These are our God-given rights, spelled out in our Constitution, and
we proudly exercise them. We will not allow an elitist bank partnered
with a foreign, faceless bureaucracy to rob Americans of their right to
protect themselves. In West Virginia, we don't ask permission to
protect ourselves and our families, and no American should ever have to
wonder whether buying a firearm will land them on a government watch
list. Privacy and gun ownership go hand in hand.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.''
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
California (Mr. Thompson), who is a leader in this Congress against gun
violence.
  Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for
yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 1181, a bill which makes it
harder to catch criminals and makes our communities less safe.
  Today, under current law, financial institutions are required to
report suspicious transactions to law enforcement. They do this every
day, and that helps catch human traffickers. These alerts give law
enforcement leads that uncover human trafficking rings and evidence
that help put these bad guys away.
  The bill on the floor today blocks States from using this same
process to flag suspicious firearms transactions to uncover gun
trafficking rings.
  Many gun traffickers don't buy guns like responsible gun owners, and
once guns are trafficked, we know bad things happen.
  Approximately 60 percent of trafficked guns are delivered to
convicted felons. The felons who seek out and obtain trafficked
firearms are the people who pose the greatest risk to everyone's
safety.
  Mr. Speaker, gun violence is the leading cause of death for children,
for teenagers, and for law enforcement in the line of duty. We should
be working to break up gun trafficking rings which supply the guns that
kill kids and cops.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this bill.
  Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman
from Kentucky (Mr. Barr), who chairs the Subcommittee on Financial
Institutions and Monetary Policy.
  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1181, the
Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act. I thank my friend, the gentleman
from Arkansas, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, for
his leadership on the bill and for yielding.
  I am proud to be a cosponsor of this legislation.
  I thank Congressman Riley Moore for his leadership on this important
bill. I thank Congressman Richard Hudson for his longstanding work
defending the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens, and our
colleague from New York, Elise Stefanik, for her original introduction
of this bill in several previous Congresses.
  At its core, this bill is about protecting privacy and preventing
government surveillance on citizens simply for exercising their
constitutionally enshrined Second Amendment rights.