Alabama House passes bill to prohibit state from creating list of firearm owners
The Alabama House passed Senate Bill 281 Tuesday, which would prevent government agencies from creating a registry of firearm owners or privately owned firearms. The bill passed by a vote of 85-5.
Known as the Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act and authored by Alabama Sen. Tim Melson, R- Lauderdale, the bill would also prevent financial institutions from declining transactions from a firearm retailer in certain circumstances. They may also not require the use of a firearm code for those purchases to distinguish between a firearm retailer from other retailers.
The bill would not prevent financial institutions from complying with applicable federal or state law, a request from a customer, or fraud, credit or compliance controls.
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The bill states that reasonable allegations of a person or entity violating this act would be investigated by the attorney general. If a violation has been committed, the person or entity would have 60 business days upon receiving a written notice from the attorney general to cease it.
If the violation does not cease, an injunction would be filed. If it is still not ceased upon 30 days of being served with the injunction, the bill would allow the attorney general to petition to the court to seek to civil fine against the violator. The fine would not exceed $1,000 per violation. The state attorney general would have exclusive authority on enforcing this act.
The bill will now go to Gov. Kay Ivey's desk.
Victor Hagan is the Alabama Election Reporting Fellow for the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at vhagan@gannett.com or on X @TheVictorHagan. To support his work, subscribe to the Advertiser.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Alabama bill prohibits state from creating list of firearm owners
