This week, credit card companies Visa, Mastercard and American Express all said they would adopt a new code to categorize sales at gun shops, a move that advocates say will make it easier to flag suspicious gun sales.
However, several had purchased their weapons at retailers that may not be categorized under the new merchant code. For instance, Bass Pro Shops and Gander Mountain –
, only 7% of those who had a gun while committing their offense had purchased that weapon under their name from a licensed dealer. More often, the survey found, they had gotten the gun from a family member or friend, or purchased it in a black market deal. "You can imagine, for example, it raising some flags if an individual purchases multiple guns every week," said Jacob Charles, a law professor at Pepperdine University who specializes in firearms law.Additionally, credit card companies generally do not have access to which items were purchased in any given transaction, only the total amount of the sale.
Some experts have expressed concerns about privacy, which echo those raised by abortion rights advocates in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturnsome have worried that credit card histories could become evidence in abortion-related prosecutionsThe combination of law enforcement with wide-ranging surveillance over purchase histories teeters on"terrifying and potentially dystopian," said Shobita Parthasarathy, director of the Science, Technology and Public Policy...
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