What changed in HF 2464

6 passages reworded, 19 added and 25 removed; 9 of 59 unchanged.

Removed AddedIntroduced textText as passedAmendments

Compares wording only. The printed bills also mark changes to existing law with strikes and underlines, which aren’t shown here.

Section 1.

NEW SECTION. 554H.1 Definitions.

1. “Ammunition” means the same as defined in section 683.1. 18 U.S.C. §921.

2. “Assign” or “assignment” means a financial institution’s policy, process, or practice that labels, links, or otherwise associates a firearms code with a merchant or a payment card transaction in a manner that allows the financial institution, or other entity facilitating or processing the payment card transaction, to identify whether a merchant is a firearms retailer or whether a transaction involves the sale of firearms or ammunition.

3. “Customer” means a person engaged in a payment card transaction facilitated or processed by a financial institution.

4. “Financial institution” means a person other than a merchant involved in facilitating or processing a payment card transaction, including but not limited to any bank incorporated under the provisions of any state or federal law, an acquirer, a payment card issuer, a payment card network, a payment gateway, or a payment card processor.

5. “Firearm” means any weapon that is capable of expelling, designed to expel, or that may readily be converted to expel ammunition, and includes a firearm component or accessory.

6. “Firearms code” means a merchant category code approved by the international organization for standardization specifically for firearms retailers.

7. “Firearms retailer” means a person physically located within the state who engages in the lawful selling or trading of firearms or ammunition.

2. “Covered entity” means an entity, or agent of an entity, that establishes a relationship with a retailer for the purpose of processing credit, debit, or prepaid transactions.

8. “Government entity” means the state, any political subdivision of the state, or any court, agency, or instrumentality of the state. “Government entity” includes a government official or an agent or employee of a government entity.

3. “Firearm” means the same as defined in 18 U.S.C. §921, and includes a shotgun, rifle, and antique firearm, as those terms are defined in 18 U.S.C. §921.

9.

4. “Firearms retailer” means an individual or entity that is all of the following:

a. “Payment card” means any card that is issued pursuant to an agreement or arrangement that provides for all of the following:

a. Physically located in the state.

(1) One or more issuers of the payment card.

b. Engaged in the lawful business of selling or trading firearms or ammunition.

(2) A network of persons unrelated to each other and to the issuer who agree to accept a payment card as payment.

5. “Merchant category code” means the code, approved by the international organization for standardization specifically for firearms retailers, that is assigned to a retailer based on the types of goods and services offered to a retailer’s customers.

(3) Standards and mechanisms for settling the transactions between the merchandise-acquiring person and the merchant that agrees to accept the payment card as payment.

6.

b. “Payment card” includes credit cards, debit cards, stored-value cards including gift cards, and payment through any distinctive marks of a payment card including a credit card number. The acceptance as payment of any account number or other indicia associated with a payment card shall be treated in the same manner as accepting the payment card as payment.

a. “Payment card network” means an entity that, directly or through a member, processor, or agent, provides proprietary services, infrastructure, software, or hardware that is used to authorize, clear, and settle credit, debit, or prepaid transactions.

10. “Payment card transaction” means any transaction in which a payment card is accepted as payment.

b. “Payment card network” does not include an issuing financial institution that settles a credit, debit, or prepaid transaction with a retailer on behalf of a consumer.

Sec.

2.

NEW SECTION. 554H.2 Merchant category codes.

1. A payment card network shall not require, incentivize, or permit the use of a merchant category code in a manner that distinguishes a firearms retailer from other retailers.

NEW SECTION. 554H.2 Government entities —— firearm registry or record. Except for records kept during the regular course of a criminal investigation or criminal prosecution, or as otherwise required by law, a government entity shall not knowingly keep or cause to be kept a record or registry of privately owned firearms or of the owners of privately owned firearms.

2. A covered entity, or a covered entity’s agent, shall not assign a firearms retailer a merchant category code that distinguishes the firearms retailer from other retailers.

Sec.

3.

NEW SECTION. 554H.3 Financial institutions.

1. A financial institution or agent of a financial institution shall not do any of the following:

a. Require the use of a firearms code in a manner that distinguishes a firearms retailer from other retailers.

b. Subject to subsection 2, decline a payment card transaction involving a firearms retailer based solely on the acquirer’s assignment of a firearms code to the firearms retailer.

2. This section shall not be construed to prohibit a financial institution from declining or otherwise refusing to process a payment card transaction for any of the following reasons:

a. If necessary to comply with applicable state or federal laws.

b. If requested by a customer.

c. If necessary due to fraud controls.

NEW SECTION. 554H.3 Firearm registry or record.

d. For purposes of merchant category exclusions offered by a financial institution for expenditure control or corporate card control.

1. Except for records kept during the regular course of a criminal investigation or criminal prosecution, or as otherwise required by law, a person, unit of government, or governmental organization shall not knowingly and willfully keep or cause to be kept a record or registry of privately owned firearms or of the owners of privately owned firearms.

3. This section shall not be construed to limit the authority of a financial institution to negotiate with responsible parties, or to otherwise impair a financial institution’s actions related to dispute processing, fraud management, protection from illegal activities, breach, cyber risks, or from taking any action that restricts the use or availability of the firearms code in the state.

2. This section shall not be construed to prohibit an owner or an owner’s representative from maintaining a list of the owner’s privately owned firearms, or to prohibit a law enforcement agency from maintaining a list, registry, or record of firearms that have been stolen or reported stolen.

Sec.

4.

NEW SECTION. 554H.4 Enforcement —— penalties.

1. The attorney general shall investigate reasonable alleged violations of this chapter. As part of the investigation, and in accordance with the Iowa rules of civil procedure, the attorney general may issue a subpoena for the production of records. If a person, unit of government, or governmental organization refuses to comply, the attorney general may seek enforcement by the district court.

2. Any of the following may petition the attorney general to investigate an alleged violation of this chapter:

a. A firearms retailer, or a customer who made a transaction at a firearms retailer whose business is the subject of any alleged violation of section 554H.2.

b. An individual whose firearms ownership is the subject of any alleged violation of section 554H.3.

1. The attorney general shall investigate reasonable alleged violations of this chapter. If the attorney general has reasonable belief 3. Upon finding that a person is in violation of this chapter, the attorney general shall provide written notice to the person person, or to the registered agent of the person, determined to have committed the violation.

2. 4. Upon receipt of notice of a violation under subsection 1, 2, the person shall have ninety sixty calendar days to cease the violation.

3. 5. If the violation persists after the expiration of the ninety-day sixty-day period under subsection 2, 3, the attorney general has the sole authority to shall bring civil action in district court to enjoin further violations by a person found to be in violation of this chapter, in addition to other remedies permitted by law. chapter.

4. 6. If a person knowingly or willfully fails to comply with an injunction issued under subsection 3, 4, after thirty sixty calendar days of the date the person is served with the injunction, the attorney general may shall petition the district court to impose civil penalties in an amount not to exceed one thousand dollars per violation, violation of the injunction, taking into consideration the financial resources of the violator and the harm or risk of harm to the violator’s rights under the second amendment to the Constitution of the United States and Article I, section 1A, of the Constitution of the State of Iowa resulting from the violation. Iowa.

5. 7. It shall be a defense to a proceeding initiated pursuant to this section that the person made a firearms code good-faith determination that the person’s action was required to be disclosed or assigned by law.