Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti sent a letter to American Express, Visa, and Mastercard CEOs inquiring about the companies’ plans to comply with a state law concerning financial transaction data associated with firearm and ammunition purchases that will take effect in the Volunteer State on July 1.
Earlier this year, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed the Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act, which prohibits financial institutions—including banks and credit card companies—from requiring a specific merchant category code (MCC) to identify transactions at firearms retailers in the state.
Credit card companies cannot sacrifice Tennesseans' privacy to appease a European NGO, especially when doing so undermines the Second Amendment.
Today, @AGTennessee submitted a letter to 3 credit card companies warning them to comply with the TN Second Amendment Privacy Act.… pic.twitter.com/fVqHzMxdt9
— TN Attorney General (@AGTennessee) June 27, 2024
The new law, which goes into effect on July 1, allows the attorney general’s office to investigate alleged violations of the law and possibly result in a civil penalty of up to $10,000.
The state law comes as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), a European organization, voted to create and adopt an MCC specifically targeting firearm retailers in September 2022.
While ISO said the rule would be a tool to “report suspicious and potentially illegal gun sales to law enforcement,” Tennessee lawmakers in the General Assembly branded the effort as a “mass surveillance of law-abiding” gun owners.
“The ISO’s controversial political decision resulted in many state laws with which you must comply. As a participant in the ISO process, you had the opportunity to push back but declined to do so. Now, given the resources of your respective companies, I am confident that you can achieve timely compliance with your new legal obligations,” Skrmetti said in a letter to the three credit card companies.
“Beginning on July 1, 2024, your failure to prevent the use of the firearms MCC on your payment networks in Tennessee risks violating state law. In such circumstances, I will not hesitate to exercise the full scope of my authority to enforce the law duly enacted by the elected representatives of the people of Tennessee,” Skrmetti added.
Skrmetti said the financial institutions “need to be prepared to comply” with Tennessee’s law.
“If they are not able to do that, I will not hesitate to enforce the law duly enacted by the elected representatives of the people of Tennessee,” he added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Jonathan Skrmetti” by Tennessee Attorney General.
