Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Elise Stefanik today announced that, following her advocacy, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express will pause the implementation of a new Merchant Category Code created by the International Organization for Standardization following a pressure campaign from Far Left woke politicians and financial institutions that seeks to track transactions for firearms and ammunition sales.
“I am proud to announce that, following my advocacy, the implementation of this attempt to track law-abiding gun owners exercising their Second Amendment rights will be paused,” Stefanik said. “When I heard gun owners’ concerns over woke institutions’ creation of a code that would to allow them to track lawful gun purchases, I called on credit card companies to ensure the Far Left is not tracking their information to use it against them in pursuit of the unconstitutional, anti-gun agenda. I will always stand up for our Second Amendment and will continue to provide a critical check on any attempt to shred the Constitutional rights of Americans.”
"Elise Stefanik has been strongly standing up against this egregious attempt to track lawful gun owners exercising their Constitutional rights. This tracking would have been dangerously used to target gun owners by the Far Left anti-gun agenda. Credit card companies’ pause on the implementation of this code is a win for our Second Amendment rights. We appreciate the great work of Congresswoman Elise Stefanik for all her work to protect our rights throughout her years serving the people of Upstate New York in Congress,” Tom King, Executive Director of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, said.
In September, Stefanik led 100 of her colleagues in demanding answers from credit card companies Visa, American Express, and Mastercard over their implementation of a classification of gun sales to ensure this is not used to track law-abiding gun owners or infringe on their Constitutional rights.
