Pressure mounts for credit card companies to create a "merchant category code" for gun-related transactions
A group of congressional Democrats is urging credit card companies to track suspect firearm and ammunition purchases as a means to identify and stop gun crime, according to a letter obtained by CBS News Thursday.
The letter, drafted by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania and signed by over a dozen of their colleagues, urges the CEOs of Mastercard, American Express and Visa to back the creation of a merchant category code for gun and ammunition retailers — a measure the industry had initially resisted, according to an investigation by CBS News in June.
"The creation of a new [merchant category code] for gun and ammunition retail stores would be the first step towards facilitating the collection of valuable financial data that could help law enforcement in countering the financing of terrorism efforts," the letter says.
A merchant category code, they wrote, "could make it easier for financial institutions to monitor certain types of suspicious activities including straw purchases and unlawful bulk purchases that could be used in the commission of domestic terrorist acts or gun trafficking schemes."
New York-based Amalgamated Bank launched the effort to create a code to track firearms and ammunition sales in July 2021. They renewed the push after a series of deadly mass shootings in which young men used high-powered weapons purchased with credit cards.
Merchant category codes are made up of four digits and are used across all sorts of industries as a means to classify retailers, while not revealing individual product purchases. Local shoe shine parlors have their own unique code, while the nearly 9,000 standalone U.S. gun sellers do not. Credit card companies currently lump firearm retailers in with other outlets, classifying them as either "5999: Miscellaneous retail stores" or "5941: Sporting Goods Stores."
Amalgamated Bank's application to create a code was twice denied by the International Standards Organization, which sets standards across the financial services industry and assigns the merchant category codes. Documents reviewed by CBS News show that credit card industry employees were part of an internal committee within the organization that recommended rejecting the application.
Amalgamated decided to appeal the organization's initial rejection decision after seeking further input from the card company employees.
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