Some blame feds for credit card tracking move

(AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

As of late, we’ve heard of a lot of shady stuff coming out of the federal government when it comes to guns. We have the FBI pressuring people to forfeit their gun rights and we have all the crap the ATF has done.

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However, now we have credit card companies seemingly getting in on the act, all without either of those two agencies.

Or are they involved or, alternatively, could they become involved?

That’s what some people believe.

A gun-rights advocate in Wyoming fears that federal agencies will access credit-card companies’ new tracking system for gun sales – but two federal police bureaus aren’t commenting yet.

Mark Jones, Wyoming spokesman for Gun Owners of America, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that there’s a real potential for government oversight of the newly-categorized gun sales.

“This is part of a pattern of behavior,” said Jones. “The Biden Administration has been keeping an illegal gun registry for years.” Jones referenced a Gun Owners of America report on the Bureau for Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms’ (ATF) use of a federal background-check list relating to gun sales.

The report was compiled following public-information requests by Gun Owners of America, Fox News reported.

“This just sort of fits with that,” said Jones. “It’s an attempt to gather more information about law-abiding people.”

I’m not entirely sure Jones is wrong.

As things stand now, the records exist as to who lawfully buys guns and who doesn’t, of course, but they’re highly dispersed. Each gun store maintains its own records and the ATF doesn’t get them unless the store goes out of business for whatever reason.

But now the credit card companies will be developing their own database of sorts. That means they’ll be in just three locations rather than thousands.

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Oh, it won’t be complete, but it’ll be enough that it should concern people.

What’s more, as Visa has said, it won’t do what proponents claim it will do with regard to mass shootings. About all that it will do is track lawful gun sales to law-abiding citizens.

After all, your average criminal doesn’t use a credit card when he buys a gun from his black market dealer.

“But mass shooters use them!”

Yes, but as noted, this move won’t do anything about that and won’t even flag a mass shooter’s gun purchase as suspicious because they don’t know what exactly is being purchased.

Of course, I suspect that’s what will be next, which will make it even easier for the feds. Then they just need to subpoena records from the three credit card companies when they want to see who is buying what.

I’d like to say that while it’s possible for them to do that, it’s not likely.

However, with what we’ve seen out of both the FBI and ATF lately, I can’t actually say that. Not with any degree of honesty.

So while the feds may not necessarily be behind this push, they’re damn sure licking their chops over it and that should make everyone very nervous about their credit card use.

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