The New York Times published an article on Monday suggesting that credit card companies surveil cardholders who purchase firearms.
The NYT piece, authored by Andrew Ross Sorkin, noted that a number of mass shooters purchased their weapons and ammo using credit cards. Banks are required to alert federal authorities to purchases exceeding $10,000, but there are rules preventing them from seeing precisely what goods users are purchasing.
Nonetheless, NYT’s Sorkin suggests that banks track purchases at sporting goods stores and gun shops and prevent cardholders from purchasing multiple firearms “in a short period of time” and report unusual spending patterns.
Visa, Mastercard respond:
“We do not believe Visa should be in the position of setting restrictions on the sale of lawful goods or services,” Amanda Pires, a Visa spokeswoman, told NYT. “Our role in commerce is to efficiently process, protect and settle all legal payments. Asking Visa or other payment networks to arbitrate what legal goods can be purchased sets a dangerous precedent.”
MasterCard similarly touted the “privacy of [cardholders’] purchasing decisions.”
Progressives know no bounds to their greed. Greed for power, for coercion, for curtailing of civil liberties, for pressuring others to do their bidding, for tyranny.