(LifeSiteNews) – Major credit card companies Mastercard, Visa, and American Express have bowed to political pressure from Democrats and gun control activists and will create a separate code for purchases made at gun stores.
The International Organization for Standardization announced on Friday it would create a new code when customers use credit cards at gun stores, according to National Public Radio.
The change could make it easier for banks to deny customers the ability to use cards to buy legal firearms or any product at a gun store, such as a safe, pepper spray, or a knife.
“Visa’s adoption is significant as the largest payment network, and with Mastercard and [American Express], will likely put pressure on the banks as the card issuers to adopt the standard as well,” NPR reported. “Visa acts as a middleman between merchants and banks, and it will be up to banks to decide whether they will allow sales at gun stores to happen on their issued cards.”
Liberal politicians and gun control groups hailed their successful campaign to pressure credit card corporations to track gun users.
“We are grateful that the International Standards Organization has heeded our call to create a new merchant category code for firearms and ammunition sales,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams stated. “This is a smart, commonsense measure that will track suspicious gun and ammunition sales — saving lives and making our city safer.”
His September 12 news release listed other political entities that had supported Amalgamated Bank’s efforts to get the international standards group to create a gun code. The change “was supported by New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, trustees of the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, Teachers’ Retirement System and Board of Education Retirement System,” the news release stated. Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul also supported the change.
“Everyone needs to do their part to combat gun violence,” Governor Hochul tweeted on September 7. She tagged the three major credit card companies and demanded they “categorize firearm purchases & flag suspicious activity – just like they do for millions of other transactions. Together we can help stop gun trafficking & keep New Yorkers safe.”
Other leftist politicians had pressured the major corporations to do their political bidding.
“The attorneys general of New York and California and Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., were among the other notable figures who supported the effort,” CNBC reported.
Gun rights activists concerned about what this could mean
Supporters of the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms are concerned about where this could lead.
“Democrats aim to create a comprehensive national list of gun owners,” Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) wrote in Newsweek on Tuesday along side economist John Lott.
The creation of a digital database of gun store customers could be a prelude to a national gun registry, the two warned.
“Federal law explicitly prohibits the creation of a federal firearm registry, and it requires that the National Instant Criminal Background Check System erase background check information within 24 hours of completion and that it not keep a database,” they wrote. “Yet in 2016, the Government Accountability Office called out the Obama administration for holding on to the data, and the Biden administration continues to compile digital records.”
They further criticized the idea that a gun registry would even help solve crimes. Lott is a recognized expert on gun control and how gun rights lower crime.
“Despite what people see on TV crime shows like Law & Order, gun registration doesn’t help law enforcement solve crimes. Police in jurisdictions from Hawaii to New York that have had registration for decades can’t point to any crimes that they have been able to solve,” the pair wrote. “Even entire countries such as Canada haven’t had success.”
A gun rights organization raised privacy concerns.
“This is just the latest attempt by anti-gun lunatic activists to pressure corporations into collecting their own business partners’ data in a way that threatens their privacy, as well as the privacy of the millions of customers who rely on these services for electronic transactions each year,” Gun Owners of America executive Erich Pratt said in a news release.
“Make no mistake, if the credit card companies were willing to so quickly cave on this demand, the mob will only demand more, leading us down a dark path where guns and ammo transactions, which are protected by the Second Amendment, are frequently halted and consistently flagged for the authorities,” the gun rights group’s senior vice president said.