Visa, MasterCard, and American Express will use a new code for gun shop purchases in US stores in a win for gun control advocates that has angered the NRA.
The merchant category codes are four-digit numbers used to classify businesses, indicating the types of services or goods being sold, according to Investopedia. The merchant code does not affect the gun purchase itself, but would allow for more transparency.
Gun-control activists say the new code will help track large or suspicious weapons purchases, while gun rights advocates argue that the new code is unfair to those buying firearms legally since it tracks the type of merchant — stigmatizing all gun shop purchases — not the actual items purchased, Mint reported.
"The ISO'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," a spokesman for the National Rifle Association said in a statement Sunday. ...
Tough! They should have the same scrutiny they want women to have for birth control and abortion care.