The anti-gun zealots coming for your weapons are nothing if not persistent.
They know the legal and political climate is not right for sweeping bans, so laws are enacted and procedures put in place to slowly constrict the life out of the Second Amendment. Waiting periods here, registrations there, and soon this vital liberty is merely a shell of its former self.
Credit card companies recently were forced to backtrack from an insidious plan to create a database of gun purchases. And while that’s cause for celebration, it in no manner means the threat is gone for good.
That possibility led to Texas Gov Greg Abbott (R) signing House Bill 2837 into law over the weekend. The legislation prevents financial institutions from implementing a specialized Merchant Category Code (MCC) to track gun purchases.
If enacted, this would put in place the ability to create a database for all weapons purchases made with a credit card.
Texas now marches alongside Florida, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, and West Virginia in restricting the use of MCCs to record transactions involving firearms. The forward thinking move by the Lone Star State was applauded by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF).
In a statement by NSSF general counsel Larry Keane, the organization declared that “Americans exercising their right to legally purchase firearms, ammunition and other related accessories should never be concerned that their lawful and everyday purchases could be used against them by private financial service providers or government authorities simply for exercising their Second Amendment rights.”
The group said the tracking scheme was “suspiciously created” to gather names and financial information that would be readily available for government officials.
These MCCs are regularly implemented by credit card companies to categorize all types of purchases, many times to offer incentives for more buying.
But in the case of firearms, advocates argued that they are more likely to be abused by authorities to track gun sales and create a de facto registry. Simply noting the origin of the idea to add an MCC for gun sales reveals the true motivation.
In 2018, the New York Times published a report alleging that mass shooters tend to purchase weapons using credit cards. The writing suggested that implementing a unique code for firearms would enable law enforcement to detect possible mass shooters.
This led to Amalgamated Bank, which is closely aligned with anti-gun organizations, proposing the creation of a firearm specific MCC to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). That plan was approved last September after first being denied.
Within days, Visa, Mastercard, and Discover revealed they were moving to put the MCC in effect.
This caused an explosion of controversy with gun rights advocates, who rightly asserted that mass shootings would not be prevented and instead, law-abiding gun owners would be tracked, and retailers harmed.
The uproar led to 12 state attorneys general signing a letter to the financial institutions that issue these credit cards. “As Attorneys General, we have the privilege of protecting our citizens from corporate coordination that hurts consumers. We are also charged with ensuring that consumer data is not unlawfully gathered or sued.”
The officials added, “This is why we have serious concerns about the implementation of this Merchant Category Code.”
And with a growing wave of legislation against the MCCs, the credit card companies backed down. In March, Visa, Mastercard, and Discover announced they were mothballing the plan — for now.
While that is good news, it is not a call to decrease diligence against threats to the Second Amendment. That’s why Texas and other gun rights supporting states are absolutely correct to enshrine laws protecting their citizens from future actions by these companies.
