Florida Republicans celebrated a win for the Second Amendment on Thursday after lawmakers thwarted credit card companies’ attempts to track gun sales. Visa and Mastercard have both announced they will be pausing work on a new gun control “code,” which would have allowed the corporations to track gun store purchases in detail. A spokesman for Mastercard blamed the efforts of state lawmakers for derailing the surveillance project, including a Florida proposal that would have imposed heavy fines for using the code.
In January, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson announced a new proposal that would penalize credit card companies for tracking gun purchases in Florida. The “Florida Arms and Ammo Act” would have imposed a fine of up to $10,000 for each separate offense. Simpson said he was working with several state lawmakers to draft the legislation.
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“We’re blessed to live in the free state of Florida where our Second Amendment rights are valued and protected, but we must stay vigilant as Democrats in Washington continue to chip away at our rights,” Simpson said at the time.
“When these bills are filed in the coming days or weeks, you are going to see many other states follow our lead.”
Similar bills aimed at combating the corporate gun-tracking program have advanced in other red states, including Mississippi. A bill prohibiting “surveillance of Second Amendment activity” by the credit companies was passed by the West Virginia legislature this year.
While the House and Senate have not yet voted on Simpson’s proposal, the promise by Florida Republicans to protect gun owners seems to have been enough.
“There are bills advancing in several states related to the use of this new code. If passed, the result will be an inconsistency in how this ISO standard could be applied by merchants, issuers, acquirers and networks,” a spokesman for Mastercard said on Thursday. “It’s for that reason that we have decided to pause work on the implementation of the firearms-specific MCC.”
“It’s working, y’all…” Simpson tweeted on Thursday.
It’s working, y’all… https://t.co/f7DUoEYIMU
— Wilton Simpson (@WiltonSimpson) March 9, 2023
In September, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), a Swiss-based nongovernmental organization, announced the creation of a new merchant code for tracking firearm and ammo purchases–previously categorized as “general merchandise.” Gun control activists lauded the decision, and the credit card companies quickly swooped in to adopt the new merchant code.
Later that month, U.S. House members drafted a letter demanding the companies demanding answers. It was signed by 100 GOP congressmen.
“This is a transparent attempt to chill the exercise of constitutionally protected rights and to circumvent existing legal restrictions on the creation of firearm registries by the government.”
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Florida lawmakers introduced legislation in both chambers to prohibit the use of the new code, but neither has received full committee approval so far. The Florida House version of the bill says that it “Prohibits specified businesses from assigning merchant category codes or otherwise classifying merchants of firearms or ammunition separately from general merchandise or sporting goods retailers.”
The Florida legislative session began on Tuesday and will continue until May 5.
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