Former California law enforcement official explains how credit card companies can use Merchant Category Codes (MCC) to save lives
Completing a puzzle can be challenging if you do not know what the image is or are missing pieces. However, determining how mass shooters and firearm traffickers purchase their product is not a complex puzzle — the pieces are right in front of us.
We know that most crime guns are first purchased from legitimate firearms dealers — often in larger quantities, following specific purchasing patterns, and often using credit cards or other electronic payments.
Fortunately, a recent decision by the International Standards Organization (ISO) paved the way for credit card companies to help law enforcement by creating a new Merchant Category Code (MCC) for the country’s federally licensed gun and ammunition dealers. This small change would allow financial institutions to identify and report suspicious purchasing patterns of firearms and ammunition, which would help law enforcement prevent individuals from carrying out the next mass shooting or engaging in firearm trafficking and straw purchasing.
Some of the nation’s worst mass shootings involve abnormally large firearms and ammunition purchases. We recently observed the fifth anniversary of the Las Vegas Route 91 festival mass shooting — the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. Within a year of the shooting, the gunman spent more than $90,000 to stockpile firearms and equipment. If these suspicious purchases had been flagged in advance — and law enforcement notified — the ensuing carnage could have been prevented.
We should not wait until the next mass shooting to act.
And let me dispel some common misconceptions: A Merchant Category Code does not identify the make, model, or serial number of the firearm, nor does it identify the type of product purchased. This code will not lead to a de-facto national firearm registry — it is not possible to build one from this information. In fact, MCCs are already commonly used to ensure bad actors are not exploiting our financial systems. For example, financial institutions use MCCs and other data to look for transactions that may identify fraud, human trafficking, and other criminal activity.
Now, credit card companies have the ability to look for transactions that may indicate suspicious purchases involving firearms and ammunition and report them to law enforcement for investigation, and we urge them to do so. By not taking action, they may be unwittingly financing gun trafficking and putting law enforcement at risk. This is not new technology, and they must use the crime-fighting tools they have available to identify illegal activity, especially when lives depend on it.
In short, having a dedicated code for gun and ammunition purchases is a simple evolution and a common-sense approach to help quell gun violence and reduce firearm trafficking, which is currently placing tens of thousands of firearms in our communities, killing our friends, our neighbors, and our children.
It takes all of us to solve the public health epidemic of gun violence, and we need our financial institutions to do their part to help prevent the next tragedy. Which they are now doing.
Steve Lindley is a Program Manager at Brady and previously served a 28-year stint in California law enforcement, including as the Chief of the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Firearms.
