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Appropriations committee advances bill to ban use of merchant-category codes to track firearm purchases
Summary
HB97 would prohibit state or private actors from creating lists or registries of firearm purchases using merchant-category codes; the bill defines covered terms and creates civil and criminal penalties. Banks warned of federal conflicts; amendment clarified wording.
The House Appropriations Committee voted to advance HB97, a measure that would amend Wyoming's financial-privacy statutes to bar the use of merchant-category codes (MCCs) or similar identifiers to create databases or lists of firearm purchases or owners.
Sponsor and text Representative Gerald Harrelson told the committee the bill creates a new criminal prohibition and civil remedies to prevent government or private-sector tracking of firearms purchases by MCC or a "firearms tracking code." The core statutory text discussed by the sponsor says no state agency, local government, special district, or private person "shall knowingly or willfully keep or cause to be kept any list recording or registry of privately owned firearms or any list…
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