Visa, Mastercard and Amex will provide a merchant code for firearms retailers to comply with a new California law, CBS News has learned.

Major credit card companies are moving to make a merchant code available for firearm and ammunition retailers in order to comply with a new California law that will allow banks to potentially track suspicious gun purchases and report them to law enforcement, CBS News has learned.

Retailers are assigned merchant codes based on the types of goods they sell, and the codes allow banks and credit card companies to detect purchase patterns. Currently gun shops are lumped in with other types of retailers, such as sporting goods stores.

Mastercard, Visa and American Express initially agreed to implement a standalone code for firearm sellers, but later paused their work on it after receiving blowback from Second Amendment advocates concerned tracking gun purchases would infringe on the rights of legal gun owners.

  • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
    810·
    9 months ago

    What a weird law.

    First, as if stores wouldn’t prefer cash to bypass this?

    Second, as if wandering over to another state can’t bypass this?

    Maybe this is the point. Make it inconvenient?

    • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      9 months ago

      I keep expecting cash to get taken away specifically to allow governments to track absolutely everything. I keep paying in cash for a lot of stuff just to keep it harder for them to justify it, but as usual, I’m pissing into the wind on that one since I’ll see kids sending a couple bucks to each other over etransfer.