WATCH: Brevard Sheriff Wayne Ivey, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson Hold Press Conference to Discuss Bill to Protect 2nd Amendment Rights from Banks

held at Knight's Armament Company in Titusville

ABOVE VIDEO: Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, State Senator Danny Burgess and State Rep. John Snyder held a press conference on Tuesday to discuss a bill that would protect the 2nd Amendment Rights from banks who target gun purchases of law abiding citizens.

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, State Senator Danny Burgess and State Rep. John Snyder held a press conference on Tuesday to discuss a bill that would protect the 2nd Amendment Rights from banks who target gun purchases of law abiding citizens

Below is a transcript for the press conference.

Good morning, everybody, and thank you for your patience. Everybody knows I’m Sheriff Wayne Ivey of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office. We thank you for joining us this morning.

This morning, I have the honor of standing not only with two of our legislators from the state of Florida, but also with our agriculture commissioner, who has a very important announcement to make about the things that they are doing to protect those of us in the state of Florida that love and understand the Second Amendment and all of our freedom, love and Floridians. So I’m excited to be here. We’re at Lawman Shooter Supply at the Knight’s Armament facility here in Titusville. We certainly appreciate them opening their doors to us. And if you haven’t had a chance to stop in here, an amazing, beautiful facility. And this organization does so much to help charitable organizations in our community. So we appreciate them opening our doors. And as I said, this is about protecting our Second Amendment, and this is about protecting the freedom that our Floridians love so much. So with that, I’m going to turn it over to our agriculture commissioner and also thank him for all he and his team do to protect our communities.

Thank you. Thank you, Sheriff. And I would like to start off by saying Florida came through this pandemic better than any other state. We were sort of the shining star of states during the pandemic, and I really want to thank Governor DeSantis for his leadership during that time. We’re known as a business friendly state, a familyfriendly state, and we’re very pleased that we’re also known as a law enforcement state with the many things we’ve done the last two years as Senate President, we’re very proud of all those facts. When we look at this bill, the Florida Arms and Mo Act, it is a great complement to the free state of Florida. Liberals like Elizabeth Warren and New York Mayor Eric Adams have championed a dangerous backdoor way to take their rights away from law abiding citizens. For the first time in history, credit card companies are being told that they have to assign a code to gun sales and Ammo sales at gun stores. They aren’t even hiding their purpose. They want to track and control and intimidate and I believe, ultimately take away the right of law abiding citizens to bear arms. It’s wrong. It puts Floridians in danger.

It infringes on our constitutional rights. This bill is simple. The policy that credit cards are following is not a law. It is a policy pushed by liberal activists. This bill prohibits the use of an MCC code, which is a merchant category code identifying guns and ammunition, and finds credit card companies that disagree with the law up to $10,000 per incident. As the Commissioner of Agriculture, weapons Licensing is under my watch. We want to make law abiding citizens have the right to bear their arms with freely. We aren’t going to let Massachusetts and New York liberals bully us here in Florida. I am proud to serve with Governor Sanderson. The Cabinet. I am proud to bring this bill forward, and I am thankful for those freedom loving legislators and Sheriff Wayne Ivy here today to support this bill. I believe this year we will also get constitutional carry done in the legislature. We’re looking forward to that. It’s a bill we’ve been working on for the last ten years, and I think the combination of that and this bill will really set up us in Florida to be a leader on our Second Amendment rights. We have two great legislators here today that are going to speak to the bill, both military men.

First will be Senator Danny Burgess. He is a major in the army.

Ivey
Senator Burgess.

Burgess
Yes, sir. Old habits stay hard. Commissioner. Thank you all.

 

Note: Speaker 1 – Wayne Ivey

Speaker 2- Wilton Simpson

Speaker 3 – Danny Burgess

Speaker 4 – John Snyder

It’s great to be here on the Space Coast. Sheriff Ivy, appreciate you welcoming us here at this great facility. This is certainly the launch pad for great ideas right here on the Space Coast.

So great to be here with Representative John Snyder, my marine colleague in the House, and our new Commissioner of Agriculture, Commissioner Simpson. Sir, you hit the ground running. There’s no doubt you’re where you belong. Appreciate the opportunity to partner with you on this legislation. This is a timely bill. At the end of the day, this is the United States of America. We don’t punish you for exercising a constitutional right. We’re in the free state of Florida. We’ve leaned in on so many issues, so many issues that other states are just now leaning in on because Florida led the way. And with the leadership of our great governor, America’s governor, governor Ron DeSantis, commissioner Simpson, and legislative leadership, we’re going to continue to do so. And so this bill, this bill ensures that we’re taking the ammunition away from those who seek to punish those for exercising their constitutional rights here in Florida. Proud to work on this bill with Representative Snyder.

[00:05:00.940] -John Snyder
Look forward to sending this to the Governor’s desk for signature and working with all the stakeholders along the way. So thank you so much.

[00:05:11.650] – Danny Burgess
Thank you, Senator Burgess. And good morning. My name is John Snyder, state Representative, District 86, which covers portions of Martin and Palm Beach County. And I couldn’t be more excited to stand here today with newly elected Commissioner Simpson, someone who knows our state government well, and as has been said, truly is hitting the ground running again, sheriff Ivy, thank you for opening up the doors of your county, and always a pleasure to join with my brother in arms, Senator Burgess. And look, what we know is in the last couple of months the curtain has been revealed and it’s been put on full display for the American people to see that corporations are not afraid to collude with the federal government, specifically the Biden administration, and do whatever it takes to whittle away at our constitutional rights. And what has been the message here in Florida and what we will continue to see in the years ahead is that our citizens deserve to know that when it comes to your constitutional rights, specifically the second amendment and your right to bear arms, we will not allow corporations to create backdoor registries or potentially curtail your right to exercise that right freely.

[00:06:30.100] – Speaker 3
So we strongly encourage our business operators who not only manufacture but sell firearms in responsible ways. And so we look forward to protecting their rights, protecting the rights of all. Floridians and again, Commissioner Simpson, excited to work with you and Senator Burgess on this outstanding legislation.

[00:06:52.850] – Wilton Simpson
And I’m going to turn this back over. We really appreciate Sheriff Ivy being here today and his support, Mr. Knight and his team here for letting us use this venue, beautiful venue. If you hadn’t been here, it’s entitled and come see it. And sheriff alternate over to you. Yes, sir.

[00:07:07.190] – Speaker 1
You guys hear me say a lot that our jobs are to protect what I call the three C’s, our citizens, our cops, and our Constitution. And when you look at this bill and the reason that I’m so excited to see this bill is it does all three, this bill is protecting our citizens rights. It’s protecting their rights to bear arms, protecting their Second Amendment. And as we all know, our Constitution as a whole has come under attack. So when we look at this, it’s doing just that. It’s protecting those three seas that we all love so much, the freedoms that we enjoy in the United States of America and and specifically the freedoms we enjoy in the state of Florida. So I am honored to stand here with these gentlemen as they push this legislation forward. I know that both our House and Senate will be receptive to this and our team will work to get it through, and then I know what our governor will do with it the moment it lands on his desk. So we’re excited to be a part of it. And Commissioner, thank you for your leadership in taking this forward.

[00:08:07.050] – Speaker 1
We’ll take just a couple of questions. I would ask that everybody keep their questions on topic that we’re here about today. So if you guys have some questions for the commissioner or any of us.

[00:08:17.550] – Speaker 5
For the commissioner, you mentioned, I’m a little bit unclear what this actually will do. It actually has what we were saying the credit card companies are trying to do, and he says it’s dangerous. And maybe you can put that into context of precedent. And it’s happening with the credit card companies and financial institutions with other industries in the past that you’re using an example of why you don’t want it to happen and you can underline the dangerous part of it. How and why is it dangerous then? Time frame for the bill?

[00:08:47.560] – Speaker 2
Sure, time frame is simple. As soon as these gentlemen get it filed, which I will assume in the coming weeks, but certainly this session, we would like to get this passed. There’s an organization called acronym is ISO. It’s called the International Organization and Standardization. And that group, it’s a liberal group that goes around and tries to use backdoor ways to take away our constitutional rights. And this group has asked credit card companies to give an MCC code specifically for people who would buy guns or ammunition. And so what we’re saying is that as our constitutional Second Amendment right guarantees us the right to bear arms, they should not be able to identify us, which, for the purposes of intimidating and bullying our citizens, and then obviously keeping lists and then obviously putting those lists on public display, we have the right to privacy in this country also. And so the danger is that if we allow them to apply this to a credit card, then where would that stop? Right? And then the penalties, which is really important part of this bill is we’re saying that if a credit card company engages in this type of activity, infringes upon this constitutional right, per infraction could be up to $10,000 fine.

[00:10:07.330] – Speaker 2
So we believe that this has not been done in any state in the union. We believe that Florida is the best state to do this in. We believe that once these bills are filed that other states will follow suit. And we believe that more than likely, credit card companies will not want to have a hodgepodge of MCC codes around the country. So they probably won’t infringe on these rights. This is a bill to prevent what’s being talked about by the liberal elitists in New York and Massachusetts.

[00:10:37.690] – Speaker 5
Have there been any other issues where this has happened or other examples where they’ve been billed not for firearms, but for another product?

[00:10:45.790] – Speaker 2
Other NCC codes could identify other issues. Generally this has fallen or just sort of general retail. And so can they do it? Yes, they can. I’m not aware of where they have done it, but like, food would have its own codes, right?

[00:10:59.430] – Speaker 1
Can I add something?

[00:11:00.790] – Speaker 2
Sure.

[00:11:05.090] – Speaker 1
A lot of people think that there’s a list out there of everybody that owns a gun, and it’s your right to privacy in that. And so this is a way to circumvent that rule that prohibits the list from being there. So this is circumventing it. So they put this code in and it actually creates a list of people that purchase firearms or purchase ammo or anything of that nature. And so it takes away your right to privacy. It really puts that into peril from it. So as I’ve come to know with Governor DeSantis and our team here in Florida, we’re on the cut of prevention. When we look at how we combat crime, we try to prevent the crime from ever happening. So this is a preventative method that’s going to go in, and hopefully other states are going to follow suit with it as well.

[00:11:54.530] – Speaker 2
Thank you. Thank you very much.

[00:11:58.290] – Speaker 1
Thank you, everybody. Appreciate it.

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