S0338, titled the “Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act,” would add a new article to Title 23 of the South Carolina Code to limit government collection and retention of information about privately owned firearms and firearm owners. The bill generally prohibits state and local government entities, officials, employees, and agents from knowingly keeping lists, records, or registries of privately owned firearms or their owners, except in the regular course of a criminal investigation and prosecution or where otherwise required by law.
The bill also targets financial tracking of firearm purchases. It would prohibit payment card networks from requiring or incentivizing merchant category codes that distinguish firearm retailers from other merchants, and it would prohibit covered entities that process card transactions from assigning firearm retailers a merchant category code that identifies them as firearm retailers. The legislation defines key terms such as firearm, ammunition, payment card, payment card network, covered entity, and firearm retailer, and it creates an enforcement process centered on the Attorney General.
Impact
If enacted, the bill would create a new statutory privacy framework for firearm-related records and payment processing in South Carolina. It would restrict state and local agencies from maintaining firearm registries and would regulate how payment card networks and card processors classify firearm retailers, potentially affecting merchant coding practices and transaction data used by financial institutions. Enforcement authority would rest exclusively with the Attorney General, who could seek injunctions, attorney’s fees, costs, and civil fines of up to $1,000 per violation after notice and an opportunity to cure.
Sentiment
Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee debate or votes in the provided materials, the measure appears to be framed as a pro-Second Amendment privacy bill with a clear policy goal of limiting firearm-related data collection. The title and enforcement provisions suggest strong support from sponsors for protecting gun owner privacy and preventing financial surveillance of lawful firearm purchases. No contrary sentiment is documented in the supplied record, but the structure of the bill indicates it is intended to advance gun rights and privacy concerns.
Contention
The main points of contention are likely to involve the scope of the ban on firearm records and the restrictions on merchant category codes. Supporters would view the bill as protecting lawful gun owners from government registries and financial profiling, while opponents may argue it interferes with financial compliance systems, limits fraud or risk monitoring, and could conflict with federal or industry-required coding practices. The bill anticipates that issue by providing a defense where a merchant category code is required by law, but the breadth of the prohibitions and the Attorney General’s enforcement authority are likely to be the most debated features.