New York enacts merchant category codes to monitor gun, ammo sales
Governors in 17 different states have taken decisive action to protect the Constitutional rights of their citizens from flawed and troublesome gun control schemes aimed at tracking the spending habits of law-abiding Americans through a shady firearm-specific merchant category code (MCC) at guns stores. The concept is a ruse hatched up a few years ago and has now become popular among some of the most strident gun control activists around.
Not surprisingly, California Gov. Gavin Newsom became the first governor in the country to enact the MCC firearm credit card code. After all, he’s eyeing his own presidential run in the future and has never met a gun control idea he didn’t favor, no matter how ludicrous. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis followed suit as well, enacting the gun retailer tracking code in August.
Not to be left out, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul joined in by becoming the third state to enact the firearm retail store MCC. She signed a package of gun control bills into law earlier this month in front of media while touting her gun control efforts and mocking law-abiding New Yorkers along the way. Former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords was in attendance, as were members of Everytown for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action and March for Our Lives.
The move by Gov. Hochul, coupled with previous statements made by the major credit card companies, demonstrates again why Congress needs to pass NSSF-backed federal legislation to prohibit the use of the firearm retailer-specific credit card code. The makeup of Congress in 2025 following the Nov. 5 election in less than three weeks will be determinative of whether that can happen.
Monitoring and watching
Gov. Hochul announced with much fanfare her efforts to implement more gun control in a state that already has among the nation’s strictest laws. She put in place some of the strictest gun control laws in recent memory and when the U.S. Supreme Court struck them down in NYSRPA v. Bruen, she doubled down and enacted even more. The recent laws included six bills, none of which had anything to do with holding criminals accountable for committing crimes.
“Today, we reaffirm our commitment to a safer New York, a continuation of our nonstop efforts to ensure we live in a place where people can be free from gun violence,” the governor proclaimed.
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Apparently, that “commitment to safety” includes looking in New Yorkers’ wallets. Included in the package was a new statute to institute the MCC for firearm retailers that tracks when law-abiding New Yorkers make completely lawful purchases at firearm retail stores using their credit cards. The gun control scheme was cooked up a few years ago by New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin and pushed by Amalgamated Bank President and CEO Priscilla Sims Brown. Amalgamated Bank is known as the Left’s private banking institution. At an event where she discussed the tracking code with Sorkin, Brown asserted “We’re at the very early stages of this.”
Apparently, Gov. Hochul agrees.
“We’re also going to require credit and debit card companies to track purchases at gun dealerships, and make it in turn for us to monitor the sale of guns and ammunition,” the governor told the audience at her bill signing. “So we know if someone’s stockpiling ammo, not a good sign.”
The governor continued by mocking law-abiding hunters in New York right as hunting season is kicking off.
“There’s a lot of deer in our state, but I kind of know some signs that you’re not deer hunting this fall, right? So let’s see if there’s someone who’s stockpiling again, sending up a red flag.”
Banks disagree
The MCC scheme Gov. Hochul celebrated won’t do anything to reduce crime in New York. Don’t just take the word of the firearm industry — though there’s plenty to support our concerns — but listen to the credit card companies and the banks. Even some media cast doubt on the effectiveness of the firearm MCC.
Bloomberg News reported after the Sorkin-Sims Brown discussion that the code would have little meaning.
“The payment network and its banking partners would have no idea if a gun-store customer is purchasing a [firearm] or safety equipment,” Bloomberg News reported.
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Sims Brown, Sorkin and now Gov. Hochul all suggest they can flag “suspicious” purchasing behavior, but the banks haven’t defined what that would even mean. They say a particular “suspicious” purchase would prompt a bank to file a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Does a single low-cost purchase, like a single box of ammunition, count? What about buying several boxes of shotgun shells to go with a new shotgun, waders, decoys and a hunting license at a local retailer? The entire purchase would be flagged with the MCC. Visa CEO Al Kelly even stated this scenario while casting doubt on the MCC idea.
While the MCC code was being considered, Kelly admitted flat out the code doesn’t work as gun control activists dream it would. “If (Visa chief communications officer) K.C. Kavanagh goes into a gun store and buys three thermoses and a tent, and you go in and buy a rifle and five rounds of ammunition, all I know is you both went to the same gun store. … But I don’t know what you bought.”
Put the brakes on it
Even though the governor promoted the new MCC law in New York as one more “effort” to fight firearm crime, the credit card companies have already “paused” implementing the newly created code due to differing state laws. That’s where the quick, proactive efforts from pro-Second Amendment governors have really played a positive role. Because state laws now vary as to whether the firearm MCC is implemented or not, credit card companies have delayed implementing the code to their respective payment networks.
“There are bills advancing in several states related to the use of this new code,” Mastercard said in a statement in March 2023. “It’s for that reason that we have decided to pause work on the implementation of the firearms-specific MCC.” Discover, Visa and American Express all offered similar remarks at the time.
Fortunately, federal legislation, which NSSF supports, is in the works to block these efforts. The Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act, introduced by U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), would ban the use of a firearm retailer-specific MCC and would protect the Second Amendment privacy of firearm and ammunition purchasers from financial service and payment card providers compiling purchase history that has already proven to be exploited by the federal government for political purposes. Rep. Stefanik’s bill has 122 cosponsors in the House of Representatives and companion legislation in the U.S. Senate introduced by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) has 22 cosponsors.
All law-abiding Americans should be concerned with this sort of government-sponsored financial monitoring celebrated by Gov. Hochul. It’s imperative for all Second Amendment supporters and those who revere the U.S. Constitution to #GUNVOTE on Nov. 5 so they don’t risk their rights. A majority that respects Second Amendment rights in Congress, both chambers, and a president that does the same likely means the MCC firearm retailer code is blocked for good.
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