Visa, Mastercard, AmEx to categorize gun store sales separately
Gun rights
advocates said tracking gun store sales would target legal gun purchases
ECONOMY Published
September 11, 2022 1:53am EDT
Fox Business
By Landon Mion
FOXBusiness
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/visa-mastercard-amex-categorize-gun-store-sales-separately
Payment processor
Visa announced Saturday its plans to separately
categorize gun shop sales, joining Mastercard
and American Express, which have already said they would
categorize purchases at firearm stores.
Visa said it
would apply the International Organization for Standardization’s new merchant
code to gun shop sales. The new IOS code was announced on Friday.
Previously, gun
store sales were labeled as "general merchandise."
"Following
ISO’s decision to establish a new merchant category code, Visa will proceed
with next steps, while ensuring we protect all legal commerce on the Visa
network in accordance with our long-standing rules," Visa said in a
statement.
The move by Visa
signals a major victory for gun control advocates who argue that a separate
category for gun store sales will help track suspicious quantities of firearm
sales that could potentially lead to a mass shooting.
But gun rights
advocates and gun lobbyists have said categorizing gun shop sales would be
unfair to the industry given that most firearm sales do not result in mass
shootings.
Visa, which acts
as a middleman between merchants and banks, is the largest payment network. And
with three major payment processors all electing to label gun store sales,
there will now likely be pressure placed on banks as card issuers to decide if
they will permit purchases categorized as gun shop sales on their issued cards.
New York City
officials and pension funds had pushed the ISO and banks to adopt the new code
on gun shop sales.
Two of the
largest public pension funds in the U.S., which are located in California and
New York, have put pressure on the country’s largest credit card companies to
adopt separate sales codes for gun sales.
Merchant category
codes are not exclusive to gun store sales, however, as the codes now exist for
nearly every type of purchase, including those at supermarkets, clothing
stores, coffee shops and other
retailers.
"When you
buy an airline ticket or pay for your groceries, your credit card company has a
special code for those retailers. It’s just common sense that we have the same
policies in place for gun and ammunition stores," New York City Democratic
Mayor Eric Adams said.
Gun control advocates
claim that the merchant code for standalone gun and ammunition retailers could
curb gun violence. A week before the 2016 Pulse Nightclub mass shooting in
Orlando, Florida, the gunman purchased more than $26,000 worth of guns and
ammunition using credit cards.
However, gun
rights advocates contest that tracking gun store sales would target legal gun
purchases because merchant codes only label the type of merchant where the
credit or debit card is used, not the specific items. The purchase of a gun
safe, for example, could be seen as a large purchase at a gun shop since the
item can be bought for thousands of dollars. But a gun safe is a product
considered to be part of responsible
gun ownership.
"The
[industry’s] decision to create a firearm-specific code is nothing more than a
capitulation to anti-gun politicians and activists bent on eroding the rights
of law-abiding Americans one transaction at a time," National Rifle
Association spokesman Lars Dalseide said.
Connecting the Dots:
George Soros is the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open
Society and the founder for Soros Fund Management.
Mark Schwartz was
the president & CEO for the Soros Fund Management, George
Soros’s senior adviser, and a director at MasterCard
Incorporated.
Soros Fund
Management is a partner with the Silver Lake Kraftwerk Fund.
Silver
Lake Kraftwerk Fund is a fund for Silver Lake.
John A. Swainson was
a senior adviser for Silver Lake, and is a director at Visa
Inc.
Thomas J.
Campbell was a director at Visa Inc. and is the dean for
the Haas School of Business.
Richard C. Blum is
a board member for the Haas School of Business, married to
Senator Dianne Feinstein and an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
Suzanne Nora
Johnson is a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank)
and a director at Visa Inc.
James D.
Robinson III is an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank) and was the chairman & CEO for the American
Express Company (Bailout Company).
Joan E. Spero was
an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank) and the
EVP for the American Express Company (Bailout Company).
Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings
Institution (think tank) and the Aspen Institute (think tank).
George Soros is
the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Julius
Genachowski is a senior fellow at the Aspen Institute (think
tank) and
a director
at MasterCard Incorporated.
Resources: Past
Research
Visa Inc. (Past Research on Visa Inc.)
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER
3, 2013
https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2013/11/visa-inc.html
MasterCard Tests Credit
Cards with Embedded Fingerprint Reader (Past
Research on MasterCard Incorporated)
THURSDAY, JULY 6,
2017
https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2017/07/mastercard-tests-credit-cards-with.html
American Express
Company (Bailout Company) (Past Research on the American
Express Company)
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER
3, 2013
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