West Virginia Bill Would Prohibit Using Credit Card Information to Track Firearms Purchases Without a Warrant
BY Herschel Smith
1 year, 8 months ago
On Friday, the West Virginia House gave final approval to a bill that would prohibit government entities from accessing information about firearm and ammunition purchases generated by a credit card merchant code without a warrant in most situations.
Del. Chris Phillips and a coalition of 10 fellow Republicans introduced House Bill 2004 (HB2004) on Jan. 12. The legislation would prohibit any West Virginia governmental entity from accessing or obtaining a record of a transaction involving a credit card that is retrieved, characterized, generated, labeled, sorted, or grouped based on the assignment of a firearms code without a warrant or a subpoena in most situations.
Financial institutions would also be barred from disclosing such information with the same exceptions. Financial institutions could also disclose such information if the customer provides written authorization for disclosure.
HB2004 includes specific requirements for a subpoena requesting such information.
On Feb. 3, the House passed HB2004 by a 95-0 vote. The Senate approved the measure with amendments by a 32-0 vote on March 9. The following day, the House concurred with the Senate amendments. The bill now goes to Gov. Jim Justice’s desk for his consideration.
The battle never stops between us and the controllers, and this is a good move. It would have been a better move to exclude the provision that a warrant is needed, and just prohibit supplying such information to anyone under any circumstances.
On March 22, 2023 at 10:42 am, J said:
“It would have been a better move to exclude the provision that a warrant is needed, and just prohibit supplying such information to anyone under any circumstances.”
Shit-weasel lawyer/politicians (I know that’s a redundant statement) always leave a backdoor option on every law…color me shocked.
On March 23, 2023 at 9:23 pm, Agammamon said:
Its a good start – but if the government has the power to do that, why not make it illegal to track *all* purchases if they don’t have a warrant?