That is not to say that any sympathy should be wasted on these financial giants since they initiated these actions by initially agreeing to track such purchases.
It was late 2022 when companies succumbed to pressure from anti-Second Amendment forces and began developing specific merchant codes to monitor legal purchases.
An uprising from states determined to protect constitutional liberties forced the credit card companies to backtrack early last year, and the battle over the controversial codes continues.
As of July 1, more lines were drawn in states over these potential mandates. Unsurprisingly, a new law in California went into effect requiring that purchases of weapons and ammunition using credit cards be tracked.
This law mandates that companies such as Visa and Mastercard enact a separate merchant category code for these perfectly legal items to record their sales.
As anyone can plainly see, this is a giant step toward a national or, at minimum, a statewide firearm registry, a long-held goal of anti-gun zealots.
Tracking code requirements have also been passed in Colorado and New York, two states that tend to mimic California’s draconian gun control measures.
Proponents claim that this action in some way would identify unusual purchases and ward off mass shootings. One such advocate is Hudson Munoz, executive director of Guns Down America, a group whose name clearly indicates its opposition to gun rights.
Munoz declared, “The merchant category code is the first step in the banking system saying, ‘Enough! We’re putting our foot down. You cannot use our system to facilitate gun crimes.’”
This shrill proclamation came despite the clear lack of evidence that such tracking of private purchases will in any way deter violent crime. It is well known that criminals rarely purchase weapons through legal means and just as rarely use credit cards for these acquisitions.
On the other hand, gun rights supporters counter that such tracking leads to undue suspicion placed on legal weapons purchasers. It would also provide a means for anti-gun lawmakers in the future to suppress Second Amendment rights.
Lawrence Keane is senior vice president for the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the industry trade association. He explained that such tracking is an ominous warning for those who value their freedom.
“We view this as a first step by gun control supporters to restrict the lawful commerce in firearms.”
However, even as California’s law will doubtlessly be mimicked by even more states, a far greater number are currently aligned with forces opposing such infringements on civil rights.
The new month brought bans on gun-specific merchant codes in Georgia, Iowa, Tennessee and Wyoming.
There are now 17 states that restrict or outright ban these controversial practices and protect the privacy of their law-abiding citizens. The great divide between those that honor gun rights and those who wish to strip them away is even more deeply entrenched.
Louisiana is set to join 28 of its state brethren in enshrining the right to concealed carry without a permission slip from the government. Its new law uncoincidentally takes effect on July 4, Independence Day.
Then, of course, there was last week’s move by Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to declare gun violence a national public health crisis. The hope of anti-gun forces is that this proclamation will be used to further restrict gun rights without clamping down on a single violent criminal.
The tremendous national divide is widening.
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