Card Networks Add Merchant Code to Track Gun Sales

Visa, Mastercard and American Express have decided to add a new merchant category for firearms retailers in a win for gun control advocates, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday (Sept. 11).

The new category, pushed by Democratic lawmakers, was approved by an international entity setting standards for the payments industry. The merchant category codes, or MCCs, are used to identify types of merchants by what they sell. Fast-food restaurants, bars and bicycle shops, among others, have the codes.

But gun shops were categorized as specialty retailers or durable-goods sellers, which are much broader categories. Proponents of adding new MCCs have cited past instances where credit cards were used to buy guns later used in mass shootings.

The new code will be for retailers whose primary business is firearms sales, and big-box stores selling guns will not be included in the code.

Gun control advocates, spurred by recent mass shootings in the U.S., have been advocating to get banks and credit card companies to do more to track suspicious gun sales. A letter from Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others said the payments giants adding the new codes would be a big step towards “towards ending financial system support for gun trafficking, gun violence, and domestic terrorism.”

In addition to the letter from the senators, the attorneys general of New York and California also made a recent effort to persuade the payments companies to adopt new codes.

Read more: Attorneys General Ask Credit Card Companies to Track Gun Sales

PYMNTS wrote that California Attorney General Rob Bonta and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both Democrats, wanted the payments giants to do their part to stop the mass shootings and gun violence.

“If tracking MCCs could stop just one mass shooting or derail one gun trafficker aiming to flood the streets with guns, the change would be justified,” the two wrote.

The Supreme Court also recently shot down New York state’s system to issue concealed weapon permits. The permits made applicants have to prove “proper cause” and “good moral character.” Lawmakers in the state did pass some parts of the law later, which banned weapons in some “sensitive places.”