Tracking Of California Credit Card Gun Purchases

Above, the Remington 870 shotgun I bought last year was a cash purchase. Photo by Mitch Geriminsky.

There's a very big reason why I and many other gun owners purchase firearms by cash only. Some states are allowing credit card companies to code firearm and ammunition purchases with a code to track them. This amounts to a registry of firearms and firearm owners.

Other states have passed laws outlawing this practice.

California has passed a new law allowing this and it is going to effect.

The Truth About Guns posted:

California gun owners have long been besieged by a lengthy list of unjust, unconstitutional firearm laws that make practicing their Second Amendment right more difficult. And a new law that just took effect is going to make freedom even more scarce in The Golden State.

The new law, passed by the legislature last year and signed by anti-gun Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom, required credit card networks to make a new firearm-specific Merchant Category Code (MCC) available to banks and other financial institutions by Monday.

At issue is a special MCC for gun and ammunition purchases adopted last year by the International Organization for Standardization. MCCs are used by payment processors (like Visa and Mastercard) and other financial services companies to categorize transactions.

To read more, go here.