US Federal House Bill HB1224

US Federal 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/12/25
• Refer: 2/12/25

Caption

Protecting the Second Amendment in Financial Services Act

Summary

HB1224, titled the “Protecting the Second Amendment in Financial Services Act,” would amend the Truth in Lending Act to bar covered entities from using a merchant category code that separately identifies firearms merchants or ammunition merchants. The bill defines covered entities broadly to include banks, acquirers, payment card networks, payment card issuers, and others involved in authorizing, clearing, settling, or processing credit card transactions. In practical terms, the bill would prevent payment-card infrastructure from tagging gun and ammunition sellers with a distinct code that could be used to track or flag those purchases. The measure is framed as a financial-services privacy and Second Amendment protection bill, and it would place this restriction directly into federal law governing credit card transaction processing.

Impact

The bill would amend Section 127 of the Truth in Lending Act by adding a new subsection prohibiting separate merchant category codes for firearms and ammunition merchants. This would affect banks, card networks, payment processors, and card issuers by limiting how they classify and process transactions involving gun-related retailers. If enacted, it would preempt or constrain the use of specialized MCCs for these merchants in credit card systems nationwide.

Sentiment

The available context suggests generally supportive sentiment among the bill’s sponsors, who are all Republican members and who introduced the measure under a pro-Second Amendment framing. No committee transcript or vote record is available here, so there is no documented bipartisan debate or recorded opposition in the provided materials. The bill’s referral to the House Committee on Financial Services indicates it was still in the early stages of consideration.

Contention

The central point of contention is whether financial institutions should be allowed to use merchant category codes that separately identify firearms and ammunition merchants. Supporters appear to view such codes as a threat to privacy and a potential tool for discouraging lawful gun purchases, while likely critics would argue that transaction coding can serve legitimate compliance, risk-management, or monitoring purposes. The bill’s broad definition of covered entities also makes it significant for the payments industry, not just gun retailers, because it would restrict how transaction data is categorized across the credit card ecosystem.