But the decision by Visa, the world’s largest payment processor, will likely draw the ire of gun rights advocates and gun lobbyists, who have argued that categorizing gun sales would unfairly target an industry when most sales do not lead to mass shootings. It joins Mastercard and American Express, which have also said they plan to move forward with categorizing gun store sales. Visa said it will adopt the International Organization for Standardization’s new commercial code for arms sales, which was announced on Friday. Until Friday, gun store sales were considered “general merchandise.” “Following ISO’s decision to establish a new merchant class code, Visa will move forward with the next steps while ensuring we protect all legitimate commerce on the Visa network in accordance with our long-standing rules,” the payments processor said in a statement . Visa’s adoption is significant as the largest payment network, and with Mastercard and AmeEx, it will likely put pressure on banks as card issuers to adopt the standard as well. Visa acts as an intermediary between merchants and banks, and it will be up to the banks to decide whether to allow gun store sales to be made on their issued cards. Gun control advocates had won major victories on that front in recent weeks. New York officials and pension funds had pressured ISO and banks to adopt this code. Two of the nation’s largest public pension funds, in California and New York, have pushed the nation’s largest credit card companies to create sales codes specifically for firearms-related sales that could flag suspicious purchases or more easily trace how sale of weapons and ammunition. Merchant category codes now exist for almost any type of purchase, including those made at supermarkets, clothing stores, coffee shops and many other retailers. “When you buy a plane ticket or pay for your groceries, your credit card company has a special code for those retailers. It’s just common sense that we have the same policies for gun stores and ammunition stores,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a former police chief who blames the proliferation of guns for his city’s deadly violence. City Comptroller Brad Lander said it makes moral and financial sense as a tool to push back against gun violence. “Unfortunately, credit card companies have failed to support this simple, practical, potentially life-saving tool. It’s about time they did,” Lander said recently, before Visa and others embraced the move. Lander is a trustee of the New York Public Employees Retirement System, the Teachers Retirement System and the Education Retirement System — which together own 667,200 American Express shares, valued at approximately $92.49 million. 1.1 million MasterCard shares valued at approximately $347.59 million. and 1.85 million Visa shares valued at approximately $363.86 million. Pension funds and gun control advocates argue that creating a dealer class code for individual firearms and ammunition stores could help in the fight against gun violence. A week before the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where 49 people died when a gunman opened fire in 2016, the gunman used credit cards to buy more than $26,000 worth of guns and ammunition, including purchases from an independent gun retailer. Gun rights advocates argue that tracking sales at gun stores would unfairly target legal gun purchases, since merchant codes simply track the type of merchant the credit or debit card is used at, not the actual items purchased. Selling a gun safe, worth thousands of dollars and an item considered part of responsible gun ownership, could be seen as just a big purchase at a gun store. “(The industry’s) decision to create a special firearms 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,” said Lars Dalseide, representative of the National Rifle Association. Over the years, public pension funds have used their extensive investment portfolios to influence public policy and the market. California’s teachers fund, the nation’s second-largest pension fund, has long targeted the gun industry. It has divested its holdings from gun manufacturers and tried to persuade some retailers to sell guns. Four years ago, the teachers’ fund made guns a key initiative. He called for background checks and called on retailers to “monitor irregularities at the point of sale, record all firearm sales, regularly check firearms inventory and proactively assist law enforcement.”
Associated Press writer Bobby Kalvan in New York contributed to this report.
