Credit card companies are now openly working with the government to circumnavigate the Constitution by implementing a sales code for gun retailers to assure gun purchases can be tracked. All this is done in the name of preventing mass shootings.
The credit card companies allege they are just doing normal business, even as they also acknowledge their doing it to stop mass shootings.
NEWSWATCH BLURB:
Credit card companies will adopt new sales code for gun transactions – www.wmur.com
Excerpt:
‘U.S. credit card giants said they will implement a new merchant category code for the nation’s gun retailers, which gun control activists say will help flag potential mass shooters and gun traffickers.The International Organization for Standardization, based in Geneva, approved the code on Friday. The system will separately categorize sales at gun and ammunition stores, which advocates say can help track suspicious transactions of firearms and ammunition.Visa, the world’s largest payment network, will “proceed with next steps” the company said in a statement Sunday, “while ensuring we protect all legal commerce on the Visa network in accordance with our long-standing rules.” American Express said it will follow its usual business practices and work with third-party processors and partners to implement the code.”We are focused on ensuring that we have the right controls in place to meet our regulatory and fiduciary responsibilities, as well as prevent illegal activity on our network,” the company said in a statement Sunday.
A statement Saturday from Mastercard noted that recent bipartisan action in Congress is a positive step in “meaningfully” addressing gun violence. Now that the ISO approved the new merchant category code, Mastercard said it is turning its focus to how the system will be implemented by merchants and their banks.”We continue to support lawful purchases on our network while protecting the privacy and decisions of individual cardholders,” Mastercard said in a statement. “This is exactly how we would manage the process for any other appropriate MCC, like a bicycle shop or sporting goods store.”Nearly every retail item has a merchant category code — prior to Friday’s decision by the ISO, gun store sales were classified under a general merchandise or sporting goods category.Merchant codes track where a consumer used a credit card, but won’t flag what…
