Payment processor Visa on Saturday announced plans to separately categorize sales at gun stores, joining Mastercard and American Express, which have already said they will categorize gun store purchases. Visa said it will apply the new International Organization for Standardization trade code to arms sales. The new IOS code was announced on Friday. Previously, gun store sales were classified as “general merchandise.” “Following ISO’s decision to establish a new merchant class code, Visa will take the next steps while ensuring that we protect all legitimate commerce on the Visa network in accordance with our long-standing rules,” Visa said in a statement. Visa’s move marks a major victory for gun control advocates who argue that a separate category for gun store sales will help track suspicious amounts of firearms sales that could potentially lead to mass shootings. LOWE’S EXPANDS INSTACART SAME DAY DELIVERY SERVICE NATIONWIDE Payment processor Visa on Saturday announced plans to separately categorize gun store sales, joining Mastercard and American Express, which have already said they will categorize firearms sales. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/Getty Images) But gun rights advocates and gun lobbyists said categorizing gun sales would be unfair to the industry, given that most firearm sales do not result in mass shootings. Visa, which acts as an intermediary between merchants and banks, is the largest payment network. And with three major payment processors all choosing to flag gun store sales, there will likely be pressure on banks as card issuers to decide whether to allow purchases categorized as gun store sales on their issued cards. New York City officials and pension funds had pressured ISO and banks to adopt the new gun sales code. Two of the largest public pension funds in the US, located in California and New York, have pressured the nation’s largest credit card companies to adopt separate sales codes for gun sales. However, merchant class codes are not exclusive to gun store sales, as codes now exist for almost every type of purchase, including those at supermarkets, clothing stores, coffee shops, and other retailers. WALMART, PARAMOUNT LAUNCH STREAMING SERVICE FOR MEMBERS Smith and Wesson handguns are on display during the NRA Annual Meeting & Exposition at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center on May 5, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/Getty Images) “When you buy a plane ticket or pay for your groceries, your credit card company has a special code for those retailers. It’s common sense that we apply the same policies to gun and ammunition stores,” said New York’s Democratic mayor. Eric Adams said. Gun control advocates claim the commercial code for independent gun and ammunition retailers could curb gun violence. A week before the 2016 Pulse Nightclub massacre in Orlando, Florida, the gunman bought more than $26,000 worth of guns and ammunition using credit cards. But gun rights advocates dispute that tracking gun store sales would target legal gun purchases because merchant codes only indicate the type of merchant at which the credit or debit card is used, not the specific items. Buying a gun safe, for example, could be considered a large purchase at a gun store, as the item can be purchased for thousands of dollars. But a gun safe is a product that is considered part of responsible gun ownership. Signage for the firearms store Firearms Unknown Guns & Ammo, in Yuma, Arizona on June 2, 2022. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images) (Getty Images) CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT FOX BUSINESS “THE [industry’s] “The decision to create a special gun 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 National Rifle Association spokesman Lars Dalseide. . The Associated Press contributed to this report.
