According to a new provision adopted by an agency that sets guidelines for commercial transactions, credit card purchases of firearms in the US can now be tracked, and purchases deemed suspect can even be shared with law authorities.
According to Reuters, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved the development of a merchant code for gun shops.
Gun purchases were formerly categorised as “miscellaneous retail stores” or “sporting goods stores” under the four-digit merchant codes that group businesses across all industries.
Politicians like Massachusetts senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, among others, have applauded the proposal, but it is unclear how the procedure will operate.
Numerous high-end credit card providers, including PayPal, Stripe, and Square, prohibit the purchase of firearms. The total cost may be higher overall for credit businesses that do permit purchases due to interest.
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Because of this, a lot of people who buy firearms do so with cash. When asked if it is preferable to buy guns with cash or credits in online forums, a lot of people respond in favour of cash.
Meanwhile, when questioned about how users like the Uvalde, Texas, gunman purchased guns through their platform using a debit card, finance companies like Credova, designed for the purpose of permitting instalment plans for gun purchases, brush off their role.
Everytown for Gun Safety President John Feinblatt applauded ISO’s decision, which was made public on Friday, and stressed the importance of seeing it through to completion.
“Today’s announcement is a critical first step towards giving banks and credit card companies the tools they need to recognize dangerous firearm purchasing trends – like a domestic extremist building up an arsenal – and report them to law enforcement,” he said in a statement shared with the Guardian.
The ISO had been asked for the codes by Amalgamated Bank, which describes itself as a “socially responsible bank.”
On Friday, they celebrated their triumph and thanked their supporters, including Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, and Tish James, the attorney general of New York.
In 2020, more than 300,000 unlawful gun transactions were prevented thanks to FBI background checks, almost twice as many as in 2019.
As a result of people being confined indoors during the first pandemic wave, gun sales increased dramatically the following year. Records reveal that there were 20 million legal gun purchases in 2020, up from 12.4 million the year before.
