Kamala Weaponizing Banks Against American Gun Owners

Above, yours truly picking up my Winchester Model 12 shotgun after purchasing it last year.

Democrats have been hell-bent on attacking our Second Amendment rights. That has been no secret. 

They are trying to weaponize banks and other financial institutions to track firearm purchases when people buy them with credit and debit cards. That's why my last two gun purchases were with cash.

Newsweek posted an opinion piece by Representatives Elise Stefanik & Andy Barr on their legislative fight over this weaponization.

It begins with:

Under the Biden-Harris Administration, there has been an unconstitutional and relentless attack on the Second Amendment rights and privacies of American citizens. In September 2023, gun-grabbing organizations and far Left politicians including New York Attorney General Letitia James cheered on the creation of a new Merchant Category Code (MCC) for firearms retailers within the payment processing system.

MCCs, seemingly introduced for regulatory or monitoring purposes, carry significant implications for the privacy of consumers and equitable treatment of lawful transactions.

The creation of MCCs specifically for firearms retailers is weaponizing the financial system against lawful gun owners by seeking to label and track transactions on firearms and ammunition. To counteract this infringement on our rights, we introduced the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act.

Our bill aims to ensure that firearms retailers are not unjustly targeted by payment card networks or other financial entities, and purchases by law-abiding citizens are protected from monitoring and denial by the government. Specifically, our bill ensures that firearms retailers are not considered differently than general or sporting goods merchants.

This protection preserves the privacy of Americans making lawful purchases, prevents the creation of a backdoor registry of gun owners, and guarantees that legal commerce is not unfairly surveilled or impeded based on the nature of the goods sold.

To read more, go here. 

Protecting Privacy In Purchases Act Introduced

Protecting Privacy In Purchases Act has been introduced in the House of Representatives by Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York, Richard Hudson of North Carolina and Andy Barr of Kentucky. 

This act, if passed into law, will prevent credit card companies and banks from tracking gun and ammunition purchases.

My last two gun purchases were by cash. It's nobody's damn business what I buy.

The Highland County Press reported:

Restricting use of a merchant category code to track transactions for firearms and ammunition sales has been proposed by Republican U.S. Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York, Richard Hudson of North Carolina and Andy Barr of Kentucky.

The implementation of the MCC, as it is commonly known, happened in September 2022 by the International Organization for Standardization. Visa, Mastercard and American Express paused the implementation, and Hudson said he’s questioned it from the outset.

A release from Hudson says the proposal would “preempt California’s newest attempt to single out and surveil law-abiding firearm and ammunition owners.” News broke last week that American Express, Visa and Mastercard would go forward and track gun store purchases in the state.

In a release, Lawrence G. Keane, National Shooting Sports Federation senior vice president and general counsel for the Firearm Industry Trade Association, said, “The Biden administration has already proven they cannot be trusted to respect the private firearm transactions of law-abiding citizens. Without a warrant, federal agencies collected financial information on private firearm and ammunition transactions to create an illegal government watchlist of gun owners. Representative Elise Stefanik’s legislation would rein in federal overreach to use the private financial transactions of law-abiding citizens against them for political means.”

Stefanik said such tracking is a violation of constitutional rights.

To read more, go here. 

Hate and Intolerance In Kentucky

Looney Left Report

Former Los Angeles County Young Republicans Chairman Arleigh Kerr now is a Lexington, Kentucky resident.

Recently, he attended a townhall meeting of his area's congressman, Andy Barr, where he witnessed first hand the rudeness of the Left.

This prompted Kerr to write a letter to the editor of the Lexington Herald Leader:

I’ve only lived in Kentucky for a little over two years, but in that time I’ve found Kentuckians to be friendly, welcoming, polite. But Monday I saw a different kind of Kentuckian; rude, intolerant and consumed by hate. 

I went to Congressman Andy Barr’s town hall at Lafayette High School. I was appalled. Many of those in attendance not only wouldn’t listen to Barr’s answers to their questions, they tried to shout him down. I don’t care if they disagree with him, that’s fine, but let him speak. 

The Herald-Leader article identifies most of those there as Democrats, but these weren’t ordinary Democrats. When I entered the building, someone at the door was handing out red and green cards and asked if I was a member of Indivisible Bluegrass. I’d never heard of this group and I said no, so I was not given any cards. As it turned out, it was these card-waving people who spent the next 90 minutes interrupting with their loud, rude, narrow-minded shouts. 

I was outraged by their actions. I don’t know who these people are, but I really hope I never see them again. They are a disgrace to Kentucky. 

ARLEIGH KERR 

LEXINGTON

To see the letter at the newspaper's website, go here.