Recent news about major credit card companies tracking firearm retailer purchases is raising eyebrows. This is true for everyone, except for the nation’s largest gun-control groups and their supporters. D.C. therefore decided to survey residents to confirm that they were behind the gun control effort. They weren’t pleased with the results.
D.C. Poll Finds Citizens Do Not Support Recent Gun Control Efforts
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), announced late last month that it had created a firearm-specific Merchant Category Code. It’s been received with open arms. A news station attempted to gauge support for this code at the nation’s Capitol. In what should have been a simple task in one of the country’s most strict gun control cities, the exact opposite happened.
Gun Control Praise
The new MCC for firearm-related purchase was covered by all major news outlets. The Washington Post reported that Visa, Mastercard, and AmEx will begin categorizing gun shop sales. It stated that all major credit card companies in the country have agreed to implement the new tracking codes. Gun control advocates applauded the news.
John Feinblatt, president and CEO of Everytown for Gun Safety, stated that today’s announcement was a crucial first step towards giving credit card companies and banks the tools they need in order to recognize dangerous firearm buying trends. “But this is just the beginning.”
Shannon Watts, Moms Demand Action’s spokesperson, also praised the announcement. “These new merchant codes will allow banks and financial institutions to track suspicious and possibly illegal gun purchases.”
Letitia James, New York’s Democratic Attorney General, said that “Today’s decision to require credit cards to categorize guns sales is a huge victory.”
Priscilla SIMS Brown, president and CEO of Amalgamated Bank in New York, which is a gun control advocacy bank that applied to ISO for the new tracking code, is one of the biggest cheerleaders. Sims Brown declared, “We won.”
Survey Says
It is seen by law-abiding Americans as nothing more than overreach even though gun control advocates are praising it. Particularly, because the code’s supporters have not defined what “suspicious activities” means. There is no information on what financial institutions will do with this information or what stores will be coded. Americans see the ruse.
FOX 5 News conducted a poll in Washington, D.C., about the new MCC. They asked: “Do you think credit card companies need to track gun sales?”
The response was overwhelming in a city with some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the country and whose citizens are overwhelmingly pro-gun control politicians.
Overall, 75 percent of gun control poll respondents voted “No”. That’s a clear statement. The code isn’t about safety. It’s about tracking them.
Credit Card Companies Shutdown
The MCC announcement was timely. Last week, lawmakers in Washington, D.C. questioned the CEOs of major banks over the issue.
Bank of America, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase CEOs were all asked questions. They mostly avoided answering but acknowledged that the banks had considered implementing the code, although they didn’t dismiss the practice.
Jane Fraser, Citigroup CEO, provided only a generic acknowledgment of the request while not saying that the bank would refuse to use the code. “We respect the Second Amendment. As I said, we don’t intend to use this code to restrict or limit any firearm sales or purchases by our credit card customers.”
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, was similarly coy.
“We don’t know what people use their money for and we don’t want to be telling American citizens what they can do. He said that he understood your concerns about the issue and spoke to members of the Senate Banking Committee.
Responding to U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D.Mass.), American Express Executive Vice President Brett Loper wrote: “We require merchants who accept American Express cards to adhere all applicable laws. American Express Executive Vice President Brett Loper, responding to Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), wrote that the new tracking code was supported by several senators. Our policy is to ensure that our customers can legally purchase firearms using our Cards.
Vagueness is The Point
The announcement of the new tracking codes for sales at federally licensed firearm retailers has given the country’s largest banks enough flexibility to not be specific. They usually acknowledge that the code was created and say they won’t use the code to deny law-abiding Americans access to lawful firearms. They also said that authorities would flag them for “suspicious activities.”
It is clear that Americans don’t support the tracking code. Even in Washington, D.C., gun-control cities almost always support gun control measures.
Story originally posted to NSSF.org
Continue Reading
Are you still having trouble finding what you were looking?
Search
The post Oops! Recent Gun Control Poll in D.C. Breaks the Narrative appeared initially on Personal Defense World.
