19 states have passed a bill called the Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act. It would ban banks from tracking purchases of firearms and ammunition.
“Make sure that gun owners have their rights or fully stored and that, retailers also aren’t being punished, or that credit card companies aren’t offering incentives to flag these kinds of purchases,” said Representative Case Brittain (R – Horry).
Supporters of the bill said they are worried banks could interfere because of their ability to keep track of gun purchases.
“It prevents Government entities that aren’t doing the regular course of business and recordkeeping and criminal logs, ones that are already in existence, from creating their own list. It protects the data for the individual gun owners’ rights,” Brittain added.
Neil Rashley, General Counsel for South Carolina Bankers Association, said that his office is not in opposition, but is worried about the wording of the bill.
“I’m concerned because it creates a cause of action on our industry should this occur. However, we do feel fairly confident that at least banks are not doing this in the state or really anywhere right now. And right now, the card networks aren’t.”
Representative Jason Luck (D – Chesterfield) showed concern about the section which said “The Attorney General shall investigate reasonable allegations.”
Luck added, “does that language give you any concern in terms of vagueness or mandatory investigation?”
Rashley added, “No, sir, I mean, we’re very accustomed to similar language, and, with the Attorney General’s Office and how they assess looking into allegations.”
As it stands, the language in the bill did not change and the Attorney General’s Office would be in charge of investigating violations of the bill.
California has adopted the opposite language where credit card companies are required to track firearm purchases.
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