Exclusive – Rep. Lance Gooden: Credit Card Companies Tracking Firearms Would Lead to National Gun Registry

Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) torched credit card companies’ move to track gun purchases, arguing it would lead to a national registry of gun owners, in letters obtained exclusively by Breitbart News.

Visa, Mastercard, and American Express decided to implement a new merchant category code (MCC) for firearms retailers.

Gooden wrote in letters to the CEOs of American Express, Visa, and Mastercard that this separate category will “ultimately lead to discrimination against law-abiding Americans” and that it would be used to “create a registry of gun owners that will be used solely for political purposes.”

“Woke corporations are nothing more than puppets of the Biden Administration and act as the fourth arm of government to push the Democrats’ radical agenda,” Gooden explained in an exclusive statement to Breitbart News. “If these companies are allowed to categorize gun sales separately, they will proactively decline transactions at gun shops and help the left establish a national registry of gun owners. They can abandon this partisan plan or answer to a Republican House next Congress.”

The Texas conservative noted that this decision marks a drastic move from when Visa and Mastercard declined to monitor and arbitrate purchases of their customers because it would set “a dangerous precedent.”

“We do not believe Visa should be in the position of setting restrictions on the sale of lawful goods and services,” Visa wrote in 2018.

“It is apparent that your decision to track and monitor Second Amendment enthusiasts is not based on any financial risk but on appeasing misguided political pressure from gun control activists,” Gooden remarked to Visa, American Express, and Mastercard.

“While it may be politically convenient for you to target the firearm industry at this time, this will undoubtedly lead to an irreversible politicization of our financial system,” Gooden said.

Gooden also demanded to know what safeguards the financial giants will put in place to ensure Americans’ right to bear arms, and asked what communications they may have had with gun control advocates:

• What safeguards are in place to ensure you will not deny law-abiding Americans their constitutional
  right to purchase and keep firearms?
  • Under what circumstances will financial information related to the purchase or sale of firearms and
  ammunition be shared with federal agencies and law enforcement organizations?
  • Please retain any relevant documents and communications related to the creation and implementation
  of a merchant category code (MCC) for firearms retailers needed for future oversight or legislative
  requests from the United States Congress, specifically:
•  Any relevant documents and communications with the federal agencies, including but not
  limited to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal
  Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB),
• Any relevant documents and communications with non-governmental organizations,
  including but not limited to the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV),
  GunsDownAmerica, Everytown for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in
  America, and the International Organization for Standardization.

“Again, I urge you to abandon this unnecessary surveillance and criminalization of the firearms industry. I would caution you that moving forward with the proposal will be interpreted as a direct attack on the constitutional rights and privacy of law-abiding Americans,” Gooden concluded in his letters to Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.