Visa announced Saturday that it will begin separately categorizing sales at gun shops.
This represents a victory for gun control advocates, who argue this will help track suspicious sales ahead of potential mass shootings, while detractors worry it could be abused against those who lawfully purchase firearms.
The International Organization for Standardization confirmed via a spokesperson Friday that one of its subcommittees had voted to approve a new merchant code for firearms, which were previously categorized as “general merchandise,” according to Reuters. The Amalgamated Bank of New York had petitioned the Geneva-based organization to put it to a vote.
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While other payment processors were quick to commit to the new merchant code, the addition of Visa includes the world’s largest payment processor. Its newly adopted merchant code will likely pressure the banks it partners with to do the same.
“Following ISO’s decision to establish a new merchant category code, Visa will proceed with next steps, while ensuring we protect all legal commerce on the Visa network in accordance with our long-standing rules,” Visa said in a statement.
MasterCard committed to the new code, applying it to its 249 million credit cards in the United States and 725 million cards globally on Friday.
“We now turn our focus to how it will be implemented by merchants and their banks as we continue to support lawful purchases on our network while protecting the privacy and decisions of individual cardholders,” a Mastercard spokesperson said.
American Express also followed suit for its 53.8 million U.S.-circulated credit cards and 58.2 million worldwide.
“We are focused on ensuring that we have the right controls in place to meet our regulatory and fiduciary responsibilities, as well as prevent illegal activity on our network,” a spokesperson for American Express said.
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This update to the merchant code comes over a week after Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) called on credit card companies to adopt such a change. “Financial institutions and payment networks, such as Visa, MasterCard, and American Express, can and should do everything they can to help law enforcement prevent some mass shootings by identifying suspicious gun purchases through the implementation of this new code,” Warren said.
Lars Dalseide, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association, criticized the move, telling the Associated Press: “The (industry’s) decision to create a firearm specific code is nothing more than a capitulation to anti-gun politicians and activists bent on eroding the rights of law-abiding Americans one transaction at a time.”
