A group of Democratic lawmakers from the U.S. House and Senate have written to the chief executives of American Express, Mastercard, and Visa, advising the credit card companies to begin monitoring Americans’ gun purchases.
Led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Dianne Feinstein, the Democrats’ letter applies pressure to the companies for creation of special categories for guns and ammunition, rather than having them in the “miscellaneous retail stores” category. The credit card companies could then help police “preempt some mass shootings.”
“Banks and credit card companies could help law enforcement preempt some mass shootings by identifying suspicious gun purchases through the implementation of a new MCC,” the lawmakers wrote. “MCCs are four-digit codes maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that classify merchants by their purpose of business.”
The creation of a new category for gun and ammunition retail stores would then aide law enforcement in compiling financial data and monitoring “suspicious activities,” such as surrogates buying guns for others, or “straw purchases.”
“The creation of a new MCC for gun and ammunition retail stores would be the first step towards facilitating the collection of valuable financial data that could help law enforcement in countering the financing of terrorism efforts,” the lawmakers said. “A new MCC code could make it easier for financial institutions to monitor certain types of suspicious activities including straw purchases and unlawful bulk purchases that could be used in the commission of domestic terrorist acts or gun trafficking schemes. Such coordination between financial institutions and law enforcement has been instrumental in efforts across the federal government to identify and prevent illicit activity.”
The purchase of guns is constitutionally protected, but the Democrats in the House and Senate seek to erode that right. Critics note that actual criminals will quickly learn that they can’t use credit cards for these types of purchases. The people who would be caught up in flagged transactions will be law-abiding citizens.
