Last Updated on September 28, 2022
An Arizona Republican is firing back against payment processors like American Express, Visa, and Mastercard after they established a new merchant code to catalog sales from firearm retailers.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) introduced the “No SmartPay for Anti-2a Companies Act” on Wednesday that seeks to effectively ban payment processors from continuing with their unique merchant code for gun retailer transactions.
Biggs’ proposed legislation would force the GSA SmartPay Program to not do business with payment processors that label gun store transactions with unique codes.
The GSA SmartPay Program is a government-led charge card and commercial payment solutions program that is used excessively by payment processors like American Express, Visa, and Mastercard.
“Credit card companies are now weaponizing their financial systems to erode the Second Amendment rights and privacies of Americans,” Rep. Biggs told Breitbart.
“Companies such as Visa, American Express, and Mastercard are implementing fire-arm specific codes to flag suspicious purchases made by law-abiding gun owners. These actions raise significant concerns about how this information will be used against law-abiding Americans,” the Arizona Republican added.
National File previously reported on payment processors and their gun-control advocacy:
Payment processor Visa, along with Mastercard and American Express announced they will officially adopt the International Organization for Standardization’s unique merchant code for gun sales.
The new merchant code was adopted by the International Organization for Standardization on Friday. Up until Friday, gun store sales were labeled to be “general merchandise.”
Democrats and gun control advocates have praised this move. Democrat New York City mayor Eric Adams called the move “common sense.”
Second Amendment advocates believe this new tracking system will unfairly hurt those who legally bear arms. Since the new code will apply to all gun store merchants, even purchases like gun safes, training aids, etc. will be categorized as gun sales.
“The (industry’s) decision to create a firearm specific code is nothing more than a capitulation to anti-gun politicians and activists bent on eroding the rights of law-abiding Americans one transaction at a time,” Lars Dalseide, a National Rifle Association (NRA) spokesman said.
Dalseide and the NRA believe this could lead to a “national registry of gun owners.”
“This is not about tracking or prevention or any virtuous motivation — it’s about creating a national registry of gun owners,” Dalseide explained.
Stay tuned to National File for any updates.
