Two more governors have approved bills that prohibit credit card companies from tracking gun sales in their respective states, with a firearm industry trade association spokesman suggesting this proves ongoing efforts to restrict Second Amendment rights are “not going to be tolerated any longer.”
Indiana and Utah join seven other states in passing laws banning the use of MCCs to track firearms and ammunition sales in their respective jurisdictions.
MCCs are four-digit numbers established by the Switzerland-based International Organization of Standardization (IOS) that identify a type of business and the kind of goods or services it provides. The codes are assigned to businesses by credit card companies and can affect the fees a card user is charged for credit card purchases.
Amalgamated Bank President and CEO Priscilla Sims Brown said, “We all have to do our part to stop gun violence, and it sometimes starts with illegal purchases of guns and ammunition.”
Concern Over Tracking
However, the announcement was immediately met with a flurry of bills in West Virginia, Idaho, Mississippi, North Dakota, Florida, Montana, and Texas, drafted specifically to block the new MCC effort in their respective jurisdictions.“It’s a very scary, Orwellian maneuver that everyone should be concerned about,” Mr. Oliva told The Epoch Times.
Indiana and Utah bring the number of states resisting the effort to track firearms sales to nine. However, Mr. Oliva noted that other states are embracing the move to force their merchants to track firearms and ammunition purchases.
‘A Divergence in Policy’
With the renewed push to use credit card companies to track the purchase of firearms and ammunition among American citizens, Mr. Oliva suggests the U.S. government now “appears to be outsourcing” the effort to create a national firearms registry to credit card companies so it can “create a back-door registry of when people are buying guns and ammunition and keeping that, making it accessible to subpoena by the federal government whenever they choose to do so.”“You’re seeing a divergence in policy,” Mr. Oliva proposed, a move he suggested is “not good” for credit card companies.
Some major credit card companies have also voiced concern about using private firms being used to track the purchases of guns and ammunition.
“Further, it would be an invasion of consumers’ privacy for banks and payment networks to know each of our most personal purchasing habits,” the company added, saying, “Visa is firmly against this.”
Following the volley of laws in 2023 in protest of the effort to track firearms and ammunition sales in their respective states, Visa issued an update to its position on March 19 criticizing the legislative actions as a disruption “to the intent of the global MCC and suggesting such laws caused ”significant confusion and legal uncertainty in the payments ecosystem regarding this code.”
For those reasons, Visa said it would “pause implementation of the MCC.”
Discover Financial, American Express, and Mastercard followed suit.
“I think what you’re seeing is that there is a growing movement among state legislators and governors who are not going to tolerate the overreaches of the federal government working hand-in-hand with private businesses to violate the Second Amendment and privacy rights of their citizens.” Mr. Oliva suggested. “It won’t be tolerated any longer.”