U.S. Reps. Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville), Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville), and Mike Rogers (R-Saks) recently expressed concern over major credit card companies implementing a classification of gun sales they fear could be used to track the firearm purchases of law-abiding citizens.
The three Alabama congressmen joined 97 of their congressional colleagues in a letter, led by U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y), demanding answers from card companies Visa, American Express, and MasterCard over their “new implementation of a new firearm specific Merchant Category Code (MCC).”
Glad to join my colleague, @RepStefanik, in seeking answers on why credit card companies are aiding the far-left in their attempts to create an illegal gun registry. https://t.co/HBws3jdsIA
— Mike Rogers (@RepMikeRogersAL) September 14, 2022
“The ISO recently announced its unfortunate decision to create a firearm-specific code” the letter said, “in apparent submission to the desires of liberal activists and politicians who seek to erode the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding American citizens. Amalgamated Bank stated its intent to utilize software to flag allegedly suspicious purchases made by Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights and file these red flags with law enforcement.”
The members of Congress believe this could be used to push a gun control agenda in the future.
“Of course, there is no accepted, consistent, scientific, or legitimate way to determine from this data what is and what is not a ‘suspicious’ purchase,” the letter said. “A gun control advocate could view any desire to own or obtain a firearm as per se suspicious. Instead, this is a transparent attempt to chill the exercise of constitutionally protected rights and to circumvent existing legal restrictions on the creation of firearm registries by the government.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
