The mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, along with other elected officials and state pension fund trustees, have requested that major credit card companies implement a weapon code for the purchase of firearms and ammunition.
This from survivethenews.com.
According to the news release:
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, trustees of the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, Teachers’ Retirement System and Board of Education Retirement System, and elected leaders today called on American Express, MasterCard and Visa, three of the world’s largest credit card companies, to support a proposal to establish a merchant category code (MCC) for gun and ammunition stores.
The request would entail the creation of an MCC code like the ones used for other retail categories to better identify and report suspicious behavior, such as large purchases of firearms.
The claim, specifically:
The creation of a new code [to] help financial institutions detect and report suspicious activity, such as unusually large purchases of firearms or ammunition, or purchases from multiple stores, that may be used for criminal purposes.
According to the news release:
[C]redit card companies use a four-digit merchant category code to classify businesses by the types of goods and services sold.
Merchant category codes are set by the International Organization on Standardization (ISO). Unique merchant category codes exist for grocery stores, sporting goods stores, bicycle shops, and many other retailers—but not for gun and ammunition stores.
American Express, MasterCard, and Visa have not supported the proposal in the past.
[T]he credit card giant is working with the International Organization on Standardization (ISO) on how to create the codes, which would appear on bank statements between Mastercard and its merchants.
Mastercard wants to be sure it also protects cardholders’ privacy.
Mayor Adams said:
When it comes to guns falling into the wrong hands, we must find upstream solutions before we’re faced with downstream consequences—because downstream consequences are lost lives.
When you buy an airline ticket or pay for your groceries, your credit card company has a special code for those retailers. It’s just common sense that we have the same policies in place for gun and ammunition stores.
I’m proud to join Comptroller Lander and our partners at the state level to call for this important policy change.
Final thoughts: This “weapon code” will begin as a blue state special but if not stopped it may eventually spread nation-wide. The tracking of my weapons and ammunition purchases is not a surprise. In one way or another some states are already doing this. Illinois, for example, requires the purchaser to possess a FOID (Firearm Owners Identification) card which is numbered and is recorded with each weapon and ammo purchase.
Also of concern, I anticipate if/when this weapon code is instituted, the threshold for concern will be gradually lowered—today four weapons and 5,000 rounds will cause concern, in weeks to come two weapons and four hundred rounds will turn off my purchasing rights.
For the time being we can likely anticipate assistance in the form of Supreme Court decisions. But as the diminishment of our Constitutional Rights picks up speed where and how will this progressivism be stopped?
