GOA Urges Senators to Grill Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen over Alleged Privacy Violations of Gun Buyers

Gun Owners of America (GOA) is urging senators to grill Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Thursday over alleged privacy violations of gun buyers.

Yellen is scheduled to appear before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on Thursday.

FOX News reported that GOA is reacting to news that “federal investigators asked banks to search and filter customer transactions for terms related to the firearms industry.”

Aidan Johnston, GOA’s director of federal affairs, sent a letter to senators in which he wrote, “Congress cannot allow the federal government to continue establishing and expanding databases on guns and gun owners.”

Johnston continued, “Whether it is the misuse of gun store records and financial data by the Department of Justice or firearm transaction data by the Department of the Treasury, data collection on guns and their lawful owners must be stopped.”

In a previous report, FOX noted that the Treasury Department’s Office of Stakeholder Integration and Engagement in the Strategic Operations of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) provided banks and financial institutions with “suggested search terms and Merchant Category Codes for identifying transactions on behalf of federal law enforcement.”

The banks and financial institutions were to watch for words and phrases that included: “Trump,” “MAGA,” “Biden,” “Kamala,” “Antifa,” “White Power,” “Camp Auschwitz,” “Proud B,” “Storm, the,” “Capitol,” “Groyper Army,” “Threepers,” “boogaloo,” “civil war,” “last sons,” “kill,” “shoot,” “gun,” “death,” “murder,” “Pelosi,” “Schumer,” and “Pence.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a Turning Point USA Ambassador, and a pro-staffer for Pulsar Night Vision. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.