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Discover Financial Services (DFS.N), a provider of credit cards, told Reuters it will allow its network to track purchases at gun retailers come April, making it the first among its peers to publicly give a date for moving ahead with the initiative, which is aimed at helping authorities probe gun-related crimes.
Discover's announcement came after the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which decides on the classification of merchant categories used by payment cards, approved in September the launch of a dedicated code for gun retailers.
Proponents of the move, including gun control activists and Democratic politicians, say it will allow financial institutions to better assist authorities in investigating crimes involving gun violence in the United States.
Visa, Mastercard, AmEx to categorize gun store sales separately
Payment processor Visa announced Saturday its plans to separately categorize gun shop sales, joining Mastercard and American Express, which have already said they would categorize purchases at firearm stores.
Visa said it would apply the International Organization for Standardization’s new merchant code to gun shop sales. The new IOS code was announced on Friday. Previously, gun store sales were labeled as "general merchandise."
"Following ISO’s decision to establish a new merchant category code, Visa will proceed with next steps, while ensuring we protect all legal commerce on the Visa network in accordance with our long-standing rules," Visa said in a statement.
The move by Visa signals a major victory for gun control advocates who argue that a separate category for gun store sales will help track suspicious quantities of firearm sales that could potentially lead to a mass shooting.
Payment processor Visa announced Saturday its plans to separately categorize gun shop sales, joining Mastercard and American Express, which have already said they would categorize firearm sales.
But gun rights advocates and gun lobbyists have said categorizing gun shop sales would be unfair to the industry given that most firearm sales do not result in mass shootings.
Visa, which acts as a middleman between merchants and banks, is the largest payment network. And with three major payment processors all electing to label gun store sales, there will now likely be pressure placed on banks as card issuers to decide if they will permit purchases categorized as gun shop sales on their issued cards.
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originally posted by: Mahogany
One thing we need in America -- mandatory liability insurance on gun ownership. There is no state in the union that allows anyone to operate a vehicle on a driver's license only, everyone also needs liability insurance. Why?
Because operating a vehicle can cause severe injury to others, possibly death, and put people in life long debt over those injuries. That should not be on the victims, and liability insurance takes care of that.
Same should apply to guns.
originally posted by: StoutBroux
Something I read about is that ANY product purchase from a gun store would receive the same MCC (merchant category code). So if you bought a gun safe, hunting accessories or targets for practice, it would get the same MCC as if you purchased a gun or ammunition.