Missouri Senator Josh Hawley sent a letter Tuesday to the CEOs of Visa, Mastercard and American Express, voicing his concern with the companies for implementing steps to track gun sale purchases via a special code applied to such transactions.
A subcommittee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved a special code Friday which would monitor transactions via credit card at gun retailers. The move came after Elizabeth Warren and several other lawmakers sent a letter to American Express seeking answers to “reports that the company has obstructed efforts” to create a category under which gun sales would be monitored. (RELATED: ‘The FBI Showed Up’: DCNF Reporter Details How Feds Pressured Americans Into Signing Away Gun Rights)
“I write to express serious concern with your decision to separately categorize gun-related purchases from other retail transactions made with your payment cards so that firearm purchases can be more easily tracked,” Hawley wrote in the letter. “This move has been described by multiple media outlets as ‘a major win for gun control advocates,’ and they are not wrong,” he continued.
The big three credit card companies say they will start tracking gun purchases, making it easier to track gun owners – and to stop sales. Big threat to Second Amendment rights. I want to know from the corporations why they capitulated to the anti-2A lobby pic.twitter.com/lr9tdQPlZj
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) September 13, 2022
Hawley claimed the move would unfairly allow big technology (Big Tech) companies to target American gun owners.
“This new system is ripe for abuse and brings to mind similar policies of Big Tech companies and payment processors that have targeted law-abiding Americans for engaging in constitutionally protected activities. I urge you to immediately reverse course,” Hawley wrote in the letter.
Hawley in the letter also pointed to other instances in which, he claimed, “companies have abused their market power to target the constitutional rights of conservatives and others with minority viewpoints.” One example Hawley pointed to was when GoFundMe, the crowdfunding site, in February removed a fundraiser made on behalf of truckers protesting Canada’s vaccine mandates, and initially refused to redistribute the donations.