Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said that he plans to penalize credit card companies that attempt to limit their clients’ firearm purchases.
His statement comes in response to a recent meeting of the International Organization for Standardization, which approved the new merchant code for credit and debit cards. According to Florida politics, gun control advocates said the regulation would allow credit card companies to track and report gun buying behavior, citing primarily volume or a “build-up” of armaments. However, to do this, all gun-related purchases would have to be tracked.
Patronis ripped into the move as a violation of human rights.
“The Second Amendment is foundational to our American way of life. The idea that law-abiding Americans would be put on some kind of corporate watchlist is disturbing. Our rights come from our Creator, not the government, and especially not big corporations. It is clear that the actions by these credit card companies are part of a larger effort to curtail God-given constitutional rights of Americans.”
According to CNBC, Visa, MasterCard, and American Express announced they would use the new code to track spending patterns on firearms.
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The Florida Cabinet Member characterized the move as being part of a broader movement he terms Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG)
“It is also symptomatic of the virus known as ESG, which is part of a global effort to socially re-engineer the country that we love so much. There is no way we are going to allow that to happen in the free state of Florida.”
The move is on-theme for Florida, which has also threatened to strip Walt Disney World of its special status for becoming political and condemning the Parental Rights in Education Act. Some on Twitter have similarly applauded this most recent example of Florida not allowing corporations to infringe on politics.
Thank you, @GovRonDeSantis, for again standing up to big businesses who would bully regular Americans—this time to those CC companies who would infringe on the constitutional rights of US citizens. #Bestgovernorhttps://t.co/JZ7KgYTcdy
— Tom Ascol @tomascol (@tomascol) September 22, 2022
DeSantis is a GREAT Governor! https://t.co/rsg1HzoHML
— Reel Lady 🇺🇸 (@Cbaxter214) September 22, 2022
Patronis said if the companies follow through, he plans to bring the matter to the next session of the Florida state legislature to draft a response penalizing them.
“We’ve seen a groundbreaking ruling come out of the Fifth Circuit limiting corporations’ ability to curtail American’s constitutional rights, so we are on solid legal footing to pursue a bill protecting Floridians 2nd Amendment Rights. We can also take it a step further by barring these companies from doing any business with the State of Florida. We will send a message out to these large corporations that if you are interested in doing business with Florida, you need to make sure that you’re protecting Floridians’ right to arm and defend themselves.”
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