17 Mar In-the-News Update [Issue: 2nd Amendment]
In a positive shift, it seems that many of the major credit card companies have reassessed their position on implementing new merchant category codes that would allow for more precise tracking of firearms-related purchases by their customers. The merchant codes were originally lobbied for by the Amalgamated Bank in addition to anti-gun activists under the claim that such codes would allow credit card issuers to flag “suspicious transactions,” potentially preventing mass shootings. Of course, the caveat to that idea is the question of who exactly determines what a “suspicious” transaction is, and by what standards. Many anti-gun or gun-neutral people might view a purchase of more than one firearm per year or 1,000 rounds of ammunition at once as being suspicious, whereas many gun owners call that a normal Tuesday. Fortunately, threats of legal repercussions from various conservative states have convinced companies of the likes of MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and Discover to postpone their adoption of MCC’s, even as Discover announced mere weeks ago that they would be expediting the new policies.