Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I strongly oppose this bill because it limits efforts to detect and investigate gun violence and acts of terrorism.

Before I discuss the bill, let's start with a few sobering statistics:

46,000 Americans die from gun violence every year. That comes out to an average of more than 125 Americans losing their life each day due to gun violence.

Of course, America is unusual in this regard. Americans are 26 times more likely to be shot and killed than if you lived in any other high- income country.

Nearly one in five Americans say they have personally witnessed someone shot.

In the past decade, more than 1.2 million Americans have been shot, with more than 400,000 who died from gun violence. For many who survive a gunshot, they may still suffer a lifetime of devastating consequences.

Most of these data points come from GIFFORDS, a gun violence prevention group set up by our former colleague in the House, Gabby Giffords. Of course, she herself was shot when she served as a Congresswoman, and she later set up the group following the Sandy Hook Elementary mass shooting when 20 children and 6 educators lost their lives.

Now, a few States, including California, New York, and Colorado, have taken action to require payment card networks to use a merchant category code, or an MCC, to distinguish firearms retailers from other types of retailers.

Many different types of retailers have unique MCC codes, including florists, barbershops, art dealers, automotive tire shops, and even candy stores. While these merchant codes don't reveal what individual goods are purchased, they can indicate an unusually large purchase at a type of business that might reveal a risk. This information could help law enforcement track suspicious purchases and prevent even more gun violence.

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.

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.

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Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I now yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green), the ranking member of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, who has always been an advocate against gun violence.

As I conclude, I will point out that when our committee held a hearing last year, none of the majority's witnesses said a single positive thing about this bill in their testimony. That is probably because there is nothing positive to say about this harmful bill.

Now, using merchant category codes for firearm retailers won't solve this problem, not even close. The codes themselves don't identify what is purchased, but it might have triggered a flag for unusual and suspicious purchases that get reported to law enforcement. Mr. Speaker, that might save 1 life or 10 lives or 100 lives or 1,000 lives or 10,000 lives. Even if it is a fraction of the 416,000 who have died from gun violence over the past decade, wouldn't it be worth it?

Mr. Speaker, the audacity of the opposite side of the aisle to tell States they cannot use these merchant codes, any State in the United States of America, even those who started in some way using these codes, they are now saying they want a law that would preempt your State from being able to use the merchant codes.

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