At issue was the anti-gun effort to establish a new merchant category code (MCC) for firearms and ammunition. Backers claimed it would give law enforcement another tool to combat deranged shooters, but the reality was far different.
Allowing the International Organizations for Standardization to record sales would be an enormous step toward a national gun registry. Constitutional advocates immediately saw through the facade and worked tirelessly to hinder this effort.
The code was established in 2022 at the behest of Amalgamated Bank of New York and a handful of authoritarian legislators.
They succeeded initially, but more on that later.
An Indiana House committee last week listened to testimony for a bill that would ban using these specific MCC codes to track firearm and ammunition purchases.
Rep. Jake Teshka (R) of North Liberty told lawmakers, “This bill is in response to activism by large corporations and global organizations who sought to institute new merchant category codes to track firearm purchases.”
Financial industry advocates complain they could be hit with significant compliance costs, though they were not present to explain how not implementing such a program would affect their bottom line. Gun control zealots noted their belief that a central registry of gun purchases would somehow put a damper on mass shootings.
But again, not before the committee.
In fact, the only opposition to the proposal came from the banking industry. Indiana Credit Union League President Chris Beaumont told the lawmakers that payment networks control the specific codes that are used.
Such a law as that proposed for Indiana, Beaumont declared, would place an undue burden on banks to watch for the illegal codes with every transaction they process.
Unfortunately for the institutions, they needed to take up their complaints with the credit card firms. After all, they were the ones who spearheaded the drive to compartmentalize gun sales and forced states to respond accordingly.
It’s these state efforts that bludgeoned the financial companies to back off in the first place.
A bevy of states roared their disapproval of the scheme early last year, and by March it was plain that there was an enormous legal showdown on the horizon. This prompted a retreat by the Wall Street firms, though there is no promise that it is permanent.
But within days of each other, Visa, MasterCard and Discover all backed away from their plan to record purchases of firearms and ammunition. A MasterCard spokesman told Fox Business that the effort was now paused — and he explained why.
“Today, there are bills advancing in several states related to the use of this code. If passed, the result will be an inconsistency in how this ISO standard could be applied by merchants, issuers, acquirers and networks. It’s for that reason that we have decided to pause work on the implementation of the firearms specific MCC.”
Which was a good thing, because enacting the code would have triggered a legal firestorm. The potential uses for such data are chilling to civil libertarians and particularly gun rights advocates.
“Detection scenarios” would be established prompting financial institutions to file a Suspicious Activity Report to the federal government. As these codes would not reveal specifically what was purchased, these reports could be for a new canoe or camping equipment.
Even extremely anti-gun Bloomberg News noted the system would be unworkable. “The payment network and its banking partners would have no idea if a gun-store customer is purchasing…a rifle or safety equipment.”
Despite the “pause” on implementation, Indiana’s proposed action is very important. There are no guarantees that the effort will not be revisited, and it is critical to have laws against such overreaches on as many states’ books as possible.
