Major credit card companies tracking gun sales

[isabel]

www.npr.org/2022/09/11/1122261276/visa-mastercard-american-express-gun-sales

"Payment processor Visa Inc. said Saturday that it plans to start separately categorizing sales at gun shops, a major win for gun control advocates who say it will help better track suspicious surges of gun sales that could be a prelude to a mass shooting.

Visa's adoption is significant as the largest payment network, and with Mastercard and AmeEx, will likely put pressure on the banks as the card issuers to adopt the standard as well. Visa acts as a middleman between merchants and banks, and it will be up to banks to decide whether they will allow sales at gun stores to happen on their issued cards."

[jlt19]

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I almost agree with the NRA here. First, I’m pretty sure merchants get to choose which code they use, so there’s no forcing a store to use these new codes. Second, it will only work if someone goes to a gun store. It won’t do anything different at Walmart or sporting goods stores or even gun shows.

Now, I don’t know what the stats are for WHERE mass shooters buy their artillery, so it may be helpful, but what’s the end game? If someone spends $x at a store within some arbitrary timeline, they get questioned?

Wouldn’t someone just go to different stores or use a different card to buy more? This just seems pointless and like lip service by the CC companies.

Maybe there should be a system in place that tracks actual gun purchases by serial numbers and state IDs…

[Deleted]

Sept 12, 2022 21:34:22 GMT -5 jlt19 said:

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I almost agree with the NRA here. First, I’m pretty sure merchants get to choose which code they use, so there’s no forcing a store to use these new codes. Second, it will only work if someone goes to a gun store. It won’t do anything different at Walmart or sporting goods stores or even gun shows.

Now, I don’t know what the stats are for WHERE mass shooters buy their artillery, so it may be helpful, but what’s the end game? If someone spends $x at a store within some arbitrary timeline, they get questioned?

Wouldn’t someone just go to different stores or use a different card to buy more? This just seems pointless and like lip service by the CC companies.

Maybe there should be a system in place that tracks actual gun purchases by serial numbers and state IDs…

Is it going to stop every mass shooting? No, of course notZ. Might it stop a few, or make them less deadly because someone won’t buy as many weapons or as deadly weapons? Maybe.

At this point I’m for any measure that makes it harder for people to buy large amounts of guns. If the government won’t do anything to flag and track these kinds of purchases, then I’m glad that Visa is at least trying to do something.

[goldengirlz]

Will it change anything? We won’t know until we try.

In the meantime, I’m for anything that will make the NRA squirm.