The government would love nothing more than to eliminate cash transactions.
Cash transactions cannot be tracked.
“Cash transactions cannot be tracked.”
Don’t be too sure. Cash is certainly harder to track, but if the government, for example, wanted to know every buyer of ammunition at an Academy store, for example they could (and probably do) do the following:
1) Log all electronic transactions (that takes care of 80%, my guesses here).
2) ID the cell phones of the cash buyers (probably 95% of them have active, registered, cell phones). They may have to use store security cameras for verification.
3) Use transponder interrogators for cars with transponders (used for toll collections). In Houston they already have them up and down our freeways, as well as on our toll roads.
4) Use high-quality License Plate Readers, which are in very widespread usage and, in some areas, already log every trip that every driver makes. Stick them at the entrances to Academy help narrow down the difficult to identify ammunition buyers.
5) Use digital facial recognition cameras at the checkout counters, and have them linked to the DMV databases.
So, while there are ways to defeat pigs looking for ammunition buyers, and while cash is certainly a good start, it doesn’t assure anything.