Discover will be the first major credit card company to track customers’ firearms transactions beginning in April 2023.
Visa, under pressure from gun control groups and New York Democrats, created a new sales category on September 11, 2022, according to Breitbart News. Several credit card companies, including Mastercard, have reportedly agreed to track and potentially flag gun sales.
The Independent Journal Review (IJR) stated on March 2, 2023, that beginning in April of that year, Discover will be the first credit card firm to track gun transactions.
In April, IJR says, “every Discover card transaction at a gun dealer will be registered.”
More than 55 million active Discover cardholder records are at the company’s disposal, making it a significant resource for monitoring the arms trade.
Discover Financial Services, according to a Reuters report from February 2023, will be the first of its competitors to publicly announce a date for implementing the initiative, which will “allow its network to track purchases at gun retailers come April” to assist law enforcement with the investigation of gun-related crimes.
For further information on Discover’s dedication to cardholder privacy, Reuters was told, “We are determined to continue to preserve and encourage approved purchases on our network.”
In September 2022, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adopted a code for monitoring weapons sales, with an ISO spokesperson noting at the time, “The choice to apply the new merchant category number is eventually left up to the users in the industry.”