It has all manner of gun control, ranging from red flag gun confiscation orders to universal background checks. It’s Gun Control Inc’s wet dream. However, like seasoned tyrants, the gun controllers never rest.
Due to the fighting spirit that still resides in many Americans, occasionally they’re able to stop the gun control crowd in their tracks at state legislatures. As a result, Gun Control Inc. is compelled to get creative in their attempts to undermine the Second Amendment. One path they opt for is by using the private sector to carry out their civilian disarmament agenda.
In New York’s case, elected officials are calling on Mastercard and Visa to set up a category code specific to firearms. As AWR Hawkins of Breitbart News noted, this new code “would in effect flag gun purchases in the state and around the country.”
According to a Gothamist report, the elected officials sent a letter to the credit card giants. They urged Mastercard and Visa to have guns placed in a separate category that specifically refers to guns or gun stores. In the present, guns usually fall under the category of sporting goods.
The Gothamist outlined the following:
If credit cards had a code for purchases at gun stores, the same laws would let them flag if someone were spending large amounts of money at one dealer, or traveling to multiple gun retailers in a short amount of time. The legislators say that could ultimately help law enforcement to stop crimes like firearms trafficking, or even to prevent mass shootings.
PoliticsNY reported that New York State Senator Zellnor Y. Myrie is leading the charge to change the categorizations for guns bought with credit cards.
Myrie stated:
The rise in gun violence has had devastating consequences for New Yorkers, and we need every sector to step up and do their part. Credit card companies have the power to identify merchants and transactions, and report suspicious activity to law enforcement when it may preempt a mass shooting. We urge American Express and Mastercard to take a simple step today that may prevent massive bloodshed in the future.
Hawkins raised an interesting point that the “push among NY lawmakers comes as Gabby Giffords’ gun control group, Giffords, is urging Visa, Mastercard, and American Express, to flag gun and ammunition purchases.”
All in all, the New York case demonstrates how gun owners will now be facing unique challenges from the private sector. This will require the pro-Second Amendment community to make tough decisions.
Due to the US’s folk libertarian founding, there exists a natural aversion to the use of state power to rein in unscrupulous corporate actors. Among the Second Amendment community, this ethos is prevalent.
In normal times, when the country’s social fabric is intact and people are able to interact with each other in a civilized manner, one can be able to take a libertarian approach to politics. However, in this time of political and social upheaval, prudential uses of state power are necessary to check the Left’s influence both in the public and private sector.
The gun control crowd must ultimately learn that their misbehavior will be met with severe punishment from a rejuvenated Second Amendment movement.
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