Elected Officials and City Pension Funds in NYC are Pushing American Express and Mastercard to Track Gun Sales
Jose Nino
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Political leaders in New York City and three of the city’s pension funds are calling on prominent credit card companies to keep tabs on firearms spending in order to detect “suspicious” sales.
In a report last week by the Gothamist, 50 state elected officials in New York had sent a letter to Mastercard and American Express requesting that they start placing sales of firearms and ammunition under a special category so that law enforcement entities can better track these transactions.
According to Ken Macon of Reclaim the Net, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, and Comptroller Brad Lander are the most prominent public officials leading this campaign. Additionally, the Teachers’ Retirement System, the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, and the Board of Education Retirement System have also joined in pushing credit card companies to flag firearms sales. Macon reported “that these pension funds have a combined 1.1 million shares in Mastercard, with an approximate value of $347.59 million, and 67,200 shares in American Express, with an approximate value of $92.49 million.”
In effect, the pension funds are taking advantage of their positions as shareholders to compel credit card providers to take action.
“Using our pension dollars to ensure that it is helping lives, not destroying lives – this is the responsibility we have,” Adams declared.
Currently, credit card providers place spending into different categories —merchant category codes— that are “based on where the money is spent.”’ Thus far, there exists no code for ammunition and gun stores.
Amalgamated Bank, the bank leading this drive, recently sent an application to the International Organization for Standardization. The IOS establishes the code. In the application, Amalgamated Bank requested a new category for ammo and firearms stores. Macon called attention to how the bank had previously filed a similar request. However, this request failed to gain any traction. There was speculation that the leading credit card providers hindered the bank’s efforts.
“If tracking these codes could stop just one mass shooting or derail one gun trafficker aiming to flood the streets with guns, it would be worth it,” stated Attorney General Letitia James.
The IOS is supposed to vote on this application later in September.
The Right needs to go beyond the private vs. public sector dichotomy. Some of the largest threats to our freedoms come from the private sector. Corporate America has largely been subsumed by wokism — from the management down to the regular staff.
Due to strong constitutional protections that safeguard rights such as the Second Amendment and free speech, it’s quite difficult for anti-freedom legislators to pass their pet projects so they have to get creative. One way they’re doing so is by using the private sector as a blunt instrument against traditional American freedoms.
The Right must pick up on this and use prudential power at the state level to put the clamps on companies that engage in such behavior. The enemies of freedom must always be punished for their misbehavior.
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