Payment processor Visa Inc. announced on Saturday that it intends to begin individually classifying sales at gun shops. This is a significant victory for proponents of gun control, who claim that it would help better detect suspicious surges of gun sales that could be a precursor to a mass massacre.
However, the decision made by Visa, the largest payment processor in the world, is likely to infuriate supporters of gun rights as well as gun lobbyists. These individuals have argued that classifying gun sales would unfairly stigmatize an industry when the vast majority of sales do not result in mass shootings. Visa's decision. It follows in the footsteps of Mastercard and American Express, both of which have stated that they intend to proceed with classifying transactions made in gun shops.
Visa has declared that it will be adopting the new merchant code for gun sales that was issued on Friday by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Up until last Friday, purchases made at gun stores were classified as "general merchandise."
Visa, in a statement, said it would continue with next actions after the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) decided to create a new merchant category code, while assuring we protect all legitimate business on the Visa network in compliance with our long-standing regulations.
The acceptance of the standard by Visa, the world's largest payment network, is significant because, together with Mastercard and American Express, it is likely to put pressure on banks, which serve as card issuers, to adopt the standard as well. Visa is a third party that functions as an intermediary between merchants and banks; therefore, it is up to the banks to decide whether or not they will permit customers to use their issued cards to make purchases at gun stores.
In recent weeks, proponents of stricter gun control laws had racked up a number of important victories on this front. Officials from New York City as well as pension funds have applied pressure to get the ISO and financial institutions to adopt this code.
The two largest public pension funds in the United States are located in California and New York, respectively, and they have been exerting pressure on the main credit card companies in the country to create sales codes expressly for firearm-related sales, which might flag suspicious purchases or more readily monitor how weapons and ammo are sold.
There is now a merchant category code for nearly every type of transaction, including purchases made at grocery stores, clothes stores, coffee shops, and a wide variety of other types of retailers.
Your credit card provider has a unique code for airlines and grocery stores so that you can use it to make purchases. Former police captain and current mayor of New York City Eric Adams says the easy availability of firearms is to blame for the city's high murder rate.
Brad Lander, the city's comptroller, stated that it made both moral and financial sense as a measure to push back against gun crime. He added that it would be effective.
Credit card corporations, sadly, have not backed this easy-to-implement, life-saving tool. Recently, Lander stated that the time had come for them to do so, before Visa and others had accepted the move. The moment has come for them to do so.
Lander serves as a trustee for the New York City Employees' Retirement System, the Teachers' Retirement System, and the Board of Education Retirement System. These three retirement systems own a combined total of 667,200 shares in American Express, which have a value of approximately $92.49 million; 1.1 million shares in MasterCard, which have a value of approximately $347.59 million; and 1.85 million shares in Visa, which have a value of approximately $363.86 million.
Pension funds and proponents for stricter gun control believe that the establishment of a unique merchant category number for establishments selling firearms and ammunition separately would be beneficial to the fight against gun violence. A week before the mass shooting that took place at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in 2016, the perpetrator used credit cards to purchase more than $26,000 worth of firearms and ammunition. These purchases included purchases made at a stand-alone gun retailer. Forty-nine people were killed as a result of the shooting.
Advocates for the right to bear arms claim that tracking sales at gun stores would unfairly target lawful purchases of firearms. They point out that merchant codes only track the type of retailer at which a credit or debit card is used, not the actual things that are bought with the card. One significant purchase at a gun shop might be interpreted as the sale of a gun safe, despite the fact that such a safe can cost thousands of dollars and is an essential component of prudent gun ownership.
Lars Dalseide, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association, called the move to create a firearm-specific code a capitulation to anti-gun lawmakers and activists.
Public pension funds have, over the course of several decades, utilized the depth and breadth of their investment portfolios to exert influence on both public policy and the marketplace.
Since a long time ago, the California Teacher's Fund, which is the second largest pension fund in the country, has been targeting the firearms manufacturing sector. It has sold off its assets in gun makers and has made efforts to discourage certain dealers from carrying firearms in their stores.
Since then, the teacher's fund has made the prevention of gun violence one of its primary focuses. Retailers were urged to conduct background checks, as well as detect abnormalities at the time of sale, document all firearm sales, examine firearms inventory on a regular basis, and proactively assist law enforcement.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on Headline Wealth.
