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Banks know that normal Americans aren’t going to stand for banks blocking purchases of guns at stores using debit or credit cards. But if they market it as “identifying mass shooters before they strike,” suddenly it seems a lot less insidious to the low-information crowd. In fact, they might even support such a proposal.

However one problem (one of many) is that “pre-crime” isn’t at tool of law-enforcement in America. At least not yet. Still, we’re talking about guns here, and guns are icky. So that justifies virtually any violation of privacy or constitutional rights for some. You know, the same simple-minded types who “buy back” guns from law-abiding gun owners and claim it’s disarming violent criminals and making cities safer.

This ploy is one of the latest gun control schemes employed by the gun control industry in cooperation with business. Government has struggled to enact gun control laws and many of the laws that are already on the books are now threatened by the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision. So government is increasingly turning to business to get the job done for them.

But if private companies and mega-corporations commit to gun control, well, that’s a convenient work-around for those seeking to make it harder for law-abiding citizens to arm themselves. That is, of course, the real motivation here. The first step was the creation and adoption of the new gun store transaction code for processing credit card transactions.

Bloomberg lays out how the scheme works . . .

Banks are developing technology to identify potential mass shooters, according to a CEO backing the push to get credit-card companies to more closely track gun purchases. 

“Detection scenarios” are in the works that, if triggered, would prompt banks to file a Suspicious Activity Report to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Amalgamated Bank Chief Executive Officer Priscilla Sims Brown said at the New York Times DealBook conference Wednesday.

“We’re at the very early stages of this — this particular code just got approved in October, so those detection scenarios are still being brought together,” Brown said. “But as this is implemented, those scenarios will be used.”

The strategy would mirror ways banks try to identify and stop fraudsters from using customers’ funds. 

For now at least, the credit card companies don’t know exactly what you’re purchasing at a merchant. That may change soon as this program gets farther down the road.

If it does, anyone buying a gun with a credit or debit card will no doubt have their “social credit” scored dinged. Buy enough guns — or the “wrong” kind — and you could be branded as a “potential mass shooter,” reported to…someone…and targeted for a detailed investigation.

Welcome to the future.

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49 COMMENTS

      • I do not believe any sane card company wants to risk being sued for defamation, etc. A lawyer seeing slam dunk dollars from a deep pocket company is not going to be shy about suing their socks off and neither would I.

      • I have a reloadable card I use to fund all the gun stuff I am buying lately. Just another step removed from the account used to do all the stuff ya gotta do when you can’t go totally off the radar.

  2. Let us hope the merchants do indeed start to track gun sales this way as it could indeed flag mass murders.

    When the government dropped the ammo recording requirement from the 1968 gun control act that was a big mistake. At the time it seemed like a good idea because back then we did not have the daily mass murders we do now. Almost all civilized nations have ammo recording laws and for that very good reason of flagging terrorists and maniacs who suddenly start buying large amounts of ammo , especially if they are not a member of a shooting club where one would need a large quantity of ammo.

    Of course the paranoid far right will scream that the government will know you bought a gun or ammo. Well guess what, they already know when you sign a 4473 form or through a variety of other ways as well. If you ever went to a gun show your license plate number was probably recorded by the ATF. If you subscribe to gun magazines or an internet chat room, the government knows you.

    And of course registration is not needed to ban guns and never was. If the penalties are draconian enough in regards to a certain type of weapon being restricted or banned the average citizen is not going to try and hide the gun because it is now totally useless to him. He could not take it to a public range or even shoot it on his own property without running the risk of being reported. He could not sell the gun or use it in a self defense situation either. So what good is it?

    • or even shoot it on his own property without running the risk of being reported

      Only if he had a Kommie-loving neighbor like you…

    • darcydodo…Never mind credit card snooping, do your neighbors have restraining orders against you?

    • A few years ago, I enrolled in Massad Ayoob’s MAG40 class. 800 rounds of ammunition were recommended as was a spare gun in case your first choice failed. I reload to velocities barely enough to cycle the gun so I also brought 800 rounds of full power ammunition from a reputable manufacturer. Since my backup gun was a different caliber (I don’t own that many), I brought 800 reloads and 800 factory loads for it, too. It took me a long time to fire off all the leftovers at the range. Prior to the class, I also fired several hundred rounds in preparation.

      I now live in Arizona within a day’s drive to the Gunsite Academy. They offer a 5-day introductory course. Ammunition requirement is 1,000 rounds ball and 50 rounds frangible. If I do the same as for MAG40, I’ll bring 4,000 rounds ball and 100 rounds frangible. (Another 9 mm handgun might be cheaper than doubling up on ammunition.)

      You’re right that a gun is useless to a generally law abiding person who doesn’t want to risk the penalties resulting from illegal possession. That won’t affect the majority of violent criminals unless the penalties are as serious as the worst crimes committed with them and prosecutors consistently charge the perpetrators. (Every time a prohibited person, typically a felon, is caught with a firearm, it’s a slam dunk conviction under federal and, usually, state law. But they aren’t prosecuted because (1) it would further overcrowd the already overcrowded prison systems and no one wants to pay for more prisons and (2) soft-in-the-head prosecutors feel sorry for the criminals.) Even the prospect of certain conviction, followed by imprisonment or execution, won’t deter the fanatics/terrorists or the violent mentally ill. The latter should convicted their crimes but confined to secure psychiatric hospitals for proper, humane treatment as long as necessary which could be the rest of their lives. No one wants to pay for more hospitals, either.

        • MADDMAX December 2, 2022 At 19:04
          Your comment is awaiting moderation
          DAC is a payed TROLL!!!

          You really think that moron kommie sympathizer is smart enough to be a “paid” troll? It’s just a misguided intellectually challenged basement dweller that is afraid to venture out in the real world, so it spends its days taking Ritalin, eating Hot Pockets and microwave popcorn, drinking Sunny D with one of those stupid little straws and playing video games while attempting to harass REAL people with its inane cut and paste methods of “truth” manipulation.

          Wow it’s been nearly a week since I went to moderation jail, guess I need to take a couple of days off, great weather coming this weekend looks like a road trip…

    • Even downunder, only purchases pistol calibers are recorded. But bulk lots of milsurp ammunition are not as common as they used to be. When bulk milsurp was available people would buy it cheap and stack it deep. Most competitors I know reload. Some buy factory when they can.

      Serious competitors will use several thousand rounds per year per gun minimum. A point where barrels are considered consumable.

      Lil’d compare the ratio of mass shooters to target shooter and vermin exterminators, your signal is going to be lost in a lot of noise. When prospective mass shooters realize suspicious purchases will be investigated, they will alter their purchase patterns. They may be crazy but they are not stupid.

      • I’m not a competitor. But I’ve fired nearly 4000 rds of 9mm para and 750 rds of 5.56×45. And the year isn’t done yet. That includes my own range training plus to concealed carry classes.

        That’s actually a bit of low year for me, according to my records. It’s usually more like 5000 rds of 9mm and 1000 rds of 5.56. But there’s still time LOL

        I also seriously doubt, based on everything I’ve read, that the typical mass shooter buys enough ammo to be flagged, honestly. They buy a few hundred rounds and then go do their thing. I literally buy cases at a time.

        This whole thing smells of being aimed at legitimate, law abiding gun owners, not mass shooters.

  4. So, exactly WTF would a trigger that could set off a suspicious activity report look like? The Walmart shooter in VA bought a handgun legally and used it same day, others had their guns for a few weeks to over a year, what could a bank see that would alarm them about any single one-time purchase and how could a “suspicious activity report” to Treasury stop that? In fact, how could ANY transaction reported to TREASURY stop ANYTHING, that is one of the slowest moving bureaucracies in government, and after they finish a month’s long investigation, they would still need to forward the case to ATF or FBI for any enforcement action. This has squat to do with stopping any shooting and everything to do with creating a national registry. Anyway, just use cash, screw the bank and their bullshit interest rates.

  5. What do mass shooters buy that would trigger an alert?
    At the start of every 3-gun season there will be a shitload of alerts as cases of ammo and new equipment get bought in very short periods of time.

    I’d be more worried about people who buy anime body pillows and “collectible” toys.

  6. The elephant in the room here is that “mass shooters” rarely own more than one or two guns. The only mass shooter that has an arsenal is the government.

    • True. I’m not afraid of anyone who has 1,000 guns, because they’re a collector and probably have a C&R license.
      But gang-bangers, mass shooters, and other criminals typically have only one or two guns.
      There’s an old saying, “Beware the man who only has one gun, because he surely knows how to use it,” but maybe that should be replaced by a new saying, “Beware the man who only has one or two guns, because he might be a mass shooter!”
      Just kidding — I know not everyone can afford dozens of guns.

      • criminals often dump their gun(s) rather than get caught with it….they don’t seem to have any trouble getting another….

  7. I read how this might work and it’s going to be a farce. (Anyone surprised?) I explained this scenario to someone I know who thinks it’s a great idea. Let’s say you shop at Bass Pro or Academy and you buy a bunch of stuff that has nothing to do with firearms and you pay with a credit card. As of now, there’s no plan to categorize what is on your receipt. You’ve just been flagged and the same goes for ANY merchant who sells ANY firearm related accessories such as slings, scopes, etc. Now, that person doesn’t think it’s such a good idea.

    Like TommyGNR said, cash is king, but we could also throw their algorithm off! I think their target is the mom and pops out there.

    • Nope.

      Just like alcohol in Eastern states, there’ll be a separate part of the store for guns with its own register, card reader and MCC. The hardware is already in place, they just need to assign the code at the terminal already at the gun counter.

        • That’s the new plan. I wonder how long they try to make it illegal to use cash

          As long as it takes them to figure out Americans are smart enough to circumvent their stupid rules and regulations. Most likely won’t make cash payment illegal, they’ll just require a national FOID to purchase firearms and ammo, kind of surprised they haven’t already done that.

    • Downunder I do a lot of internet orders for optics, accessories, and projectiles. Powder and primers I buy locally. I also buy a lot of computer parts for repairs, modifications, and upgrades.

  10. Signal/noise ratio will be extremely low, more so once the CIA is taken out of the equation.

    I predict this will last until just about the time they lose a major slander/libel/defamation case when they drag some unfortunate but innocent schmuck through the prison-industrial complex over activity they deem “suspicious.”

  11. .I dont have a credit/debit card.
    I dont want a credit/debit card.
    Credit/debit cards give the Takers to much control.

  12. We need to start by suspending any belief that these types of things are being done for what they say they are for. That’s total BS. Then we start by accepting that we can’t stop the libtard left from doing this kind of stuff by making an x in a box on a piece of paper in a voting booth.

  14. OK, so are some of us starting to figure out that the elections in the US are compromised? It’s time for something different.

    • Tar and feather the people in the organizations buying ads in the primaries for candidates they obviously don’t support.

      DCCC and Senate Majority PAC are great starting points.

  15. For me it’s really quite simple. If I can’t use my cards for legally purchasing goods and services then those cards are no good to me.

  20. I think I might have paid with a check 35 or 40 years ago, but I’ve never used a card to buy a gun. Occassionally, I’ll use a prepaid Debit to buy parts, ammo components and on the rare occasion ammo, but it’s rare that purchase exceeds $100.
    We’re living in a Police State anymore.

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