Posted on 04/30/2018 3:39:32 AM PDT by abb
Banks and credit-card companies are discussing ways to identify purchases of guns in their payment systems, a move that could be a prelude to restricting such transactions, according to people familiar with the talks.
The discussions are preliminary but could be deeply controversial. Gun-rights groups have long resisted any effort to monitor which Americans own guns; there are federal laws limiting the government’s use of electronic databases of gun sales.
The financial companies have explored creating a new credit-card code for firearms dealers, similar to how they code restaurants, or department stores, according to people familiar with the matter. Another idea would require merchants to share information about specific firearm products consumers are buying, some of the people said.
Such data could allow banks to restrict purchases at certain businesses or monitor them. The talks, which are informal and might not lead to any action, have occurred against the backdrop of the national debate around guns in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., high-school shooting, which left 17 dead.
Even a move to monitor gun purchases would be contentious, highlighting concerns about the use of consumer data and Wall Street’s involvement in a sensitive political area.
“There’s a privacy angle here,” said Adam Levitin, professor of law at Georgetown University. “There’s the slippery slope danger if it’s guns today maybe it is pornography tomorrow and the day after it’s right-wing literature.”
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Consider the uproar if a bank stopped use of its credit card at Planned Parenthood. Or gay bars.
Which banks and credit card companies?
I want to divest wherever possible.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R., Idaho) last week sent letters to Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. criticizing moves by the companies to enforce new policies on gun-industry clients or to stop doing business with certain gun makers.
Why is this a concern of banks?
I sit back and wonder what the driving force behind this is. It takes considerable influence to do this yet we never hear about the man behind the curtain. Sure we all think it’s Soros but that’s not good enough.
Perhaps it’s all the liberal politicians that retire into cushy jobs on the board of financial institutions?
Some banks (very few in fact) have said that they don’t want to handle business accounts of gun-shops.
It’s somewhat the same attitude taken by some banks in Colorado...in that they won’t handle marijuana shops and their business trade. I read somewhere where one of the more successful guys in the Colorado trade intends to create his own personal bank. I would expect this to occur with the gun-shop owners in the next decade.
The latest angle of the gun-grabbers is to make it hard on businesses that have anything to do with facilitating the purchase, manufacture, or distribution of guns.
I can tell you that if the MSM is covering this now, it’s already being done. The banking sector is already using data analytics to create enormous data marts for credit unions, banks, investment houses, mortgage lenders, etc. They are able to generate reports about purchasing habits, market sector growth and contraction, individual spending, risk, fraud, you name it, and those reports are usually available in minutes.
If you are concerned about your financial history being scraped for habits like Facebook does for your life, you should consider cash for purchases that might be seen as controversial.
WHO WOULD BUY A GUN WITH A CREDIT CARD??
Cash.
Straight Cash, Homey.
There are three gun stores near my house where I have seen customers make purchases using cash. Stories like this encourage that.
L8r
I do, because I rarely carry $600-1000 on me and when you see that perfect gotta-have-it gun, then you gotta have it.
You’re not wrong, but there’s a monumental movement afoot to render cash obsolete. While the standard of $9,000 is still in place for deposits, over-the-counter withdrawals for as little as $1,000 are now being flagged for followup by many financial institutions. Don’t be surprised if, in the next 5-10 years, cash withdrawals will be limited to $100 per day.
It’s done and able to be done. 12 years ago I lived in Michigan, the state government went to and teamed up with credit card companies to find out who was buying cigarettes in Indiana so they could collect taxes owed.
At the time they also started cracking down on Internet gambling. They were refusing to fund certain websites.
My guess is they are trying to figure out some way of pussy footing around so they don’t piss off half their customer base.
Guns and ammo - straight cash.
LC9s. Purchased with visa in april, just for my convenience My FFL licensed dealer would have preferred cash. I can accommodate him next time if I have to.
So as vehicles kill far more people than guns will the credit card companies try to ban their use for part or all the price of the vehicles?
All this does is reinforce my belief in private sales. I only buy from regular people selling their firearms.
Try armslist.
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