The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has adopted a new merchant category code that is specific to sales at gun stores.
The new code will change the classification of credit card purchases of guns and ammunition from the more general “sporting goods” category.
The move was praised by gun control groups and some politicians. Priscilla Sims Brown, the President and CEO of Amalgamated Bank, which advocated for the change, said, “The new code will allow us to fully comply with our duty to report suspicious activity and illegal gun sales to authorities without blocking or impeding legal gun sales.”
“Perhaps the most concerning consequence of this new coding scheme is the fact that all of this information about individuals’ gun purchases will be easily accessible to the government, thanks to the so-called ‘third-party doctrine,'” said Amy Peikoff, Parler’s Head of Policy and Legal.
That legal doctrine provides that any information shared with a “third party,” such as a credit card company, no longer enjoys the protection of the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement.
