GUNS/RLTD Colorado Signs Bill Requiring Credit Card Tracking of Gun and Ammo Purchases

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gunwish

Senior Member
www.ammoland.com

Colorado Signs Bill Requiring Credit Card Tracking of Gun and Ammo Purchases

Democrat Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has signed legislation that will require credit card companies to track purchases of firearms and ammunition with credit cards.
www.ammoland.com www.ammoland.com

Colorado Signs Bill Requiring Credit Card Tracking of Gun and Ammo Purchases

Ammoland Inc. Posted on May 3, 2024 by Dave Workman

Colorado Anti-Gunners Will Push Waiting Period, Safe Storage
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has signed legislation requiring retailers to create a special Merchant’s code to track credit card purchases of guns and ammunition. iStock-884190572
Democrat Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has signed legislation that will require credit card companies to track purchases of firearms and ammunition with credit cards, a scheme opposed by Second Amendment activists and organizations as backdoor gun registration.
According to KDVR News in Denver, which labeled gun control proponents as “gun reform advocates,” the bill requires credit card companies to “apply a specific code” to such purchases. This “merchant category code” was pushed by state Sen. Tom Sullivan, a Democrat whose son was killed in the Aurora theater rampage. He was joined by state Reps, Javier Mabrey and Meg Froelich.

The new legislation could simply compel gun and ammunition buyers to either pay cash or write a check, or possibly use a cashier’s check. Many in the firearms community consider such legislation an egregious invasion of privacy.​


Both the National Shooting Sports Foundation and National Rifle Association last years vigorously opposed this type of legislation. Last year, four major credit card companies actually paused efforts to create a Merchant Category Code (MCC) for such purchases.
A legislative description of the new law notes that violators could be fined up to $10,000 per infraction, and face an injunction. The state attorney general has sole authority to enforce this new law. The law kicks in next year, while credit card companies must make the code available to retailers starting Sept. 1, while the codes will be assigned and tracked beginning May 1, 2025, KDVR explained.
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While the gun prohibition lobby is hailing the governor’s bill signing, there are definitely critics. KKTV News found one in Colorado Springs. Firearms dealer Paul Paradis, confirmed more people are paying with cash rather than credit cards.​

Paradis reportedly told the station this new law is like something straight out of the George Orwell classic “1984.” The gun dealer simply observed the story line arrived 40 years late.
This isn’t the only anti-gun legislation signed by Polis. A few days ago, as detailed by the Colorado News Line, he also signed Senate Bill 23-170, which allows mental health professionals, district attorneys, educators and medical professionals to petition judges in order to disarm “potentially dangerous persons.” It expands the scope of Colorado’s “red flag” law and might land Colorado on the radar of the Second Amendment Foundation. Last year, SAF launched its “Capture the Flag” project aimed at finding abuses of “red flag” laws, with the pilot effort focusing on six states, California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Washington. The biggest concern about such laws is about due process.

Another bill signed by Polis was Senate Bill 23-168, which opens up gun dealers and manufacturers to lawsuits by repealing a law which limited product liability actions against manufacturers, according to a state legislative description.​


Polis also signed Senate Bill 23-169, which raises the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21 years. According to the state website, “The act makes the unlawful purchase of a firearm by a person who is less than 21 years of age a class 2 misdemeanor and makes it unlawful for a licensed or unlicensed gun dealer to facilitate such a sale.”
Still another affront to gun owners came when Polis signed House Bill 23-1219, which imposes a three-day waiting period on gun purchases. In Colorado, as well as Maine where Gov. Janet Mills signed a similar measure last week, the bill’s supporters argued the 72-hour wait creates a “cooling-off period” to prevent spur-of-the-moment tragedies. Under this bill, cities reportedly can increase the waiting period in their jurisdictions, as reported by the Colorado News Line. Backers of this bill were also all Democrats.
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The waiting period bill raises concerns that such waits will be extended to ridiculous lengths, thus presenting grounds for legal challenge, since government simply cannot postpone indefinitely the exercise of a constitutionally protected fundamental right.​

Colorado News Line is already reporting that the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners is moving to challenge the waiting period and minimum age laws in court.
There are still concerns about an attempt to ban so-called “assault weapons” before the May 8 legislative adjournment.

In recent years, Colorado has changed its gun laws, even repealing state preemption, as Democrats have captured and retained legislative control.​

 
hiwall

hiwall

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Most or all of these new laws are very likely unconstitutional. The problem is they all separately have to go through the long and very expensive legal process with the result being unpredictable.
 
Macgyver

Macgyver

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I don't know how they expect this to work.
Credit card processors do categorize retailers. But there is no data other than total dollar amounts and card info sent between.

If you bought a gun or ammo at Walmart it's just going to be a retail store.
 
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G

gunwish

Senior Member
Macgyver said:
I don't know how they expect this to work.
Credit card processors do categorize retailers. But there is no date other than total dollar amounts and card info sent between.

If you bought a gun or ammo at Walmart it's just going to be a retail store.
Click to expand...
Yeah all the credit card companies know now is the merchant, card info, and the amount. They have no way of knowing what was bought. The card companies will have to put in some kind of additional steps for the merchant to be able to transmit what is being bought.
 
P

Publius

TB Fanatic
hiwall said:
Most or all of these new laws are very likely unconstitutional. The problem is they all separately have to go through the long and very expensive legal process with the result being unpredictable.
Click to expand...

The law as it seems right now is requiring credit card companies to track all gun and ammo purchases and this requires a court issued warrant for each and every person the state wants to surveil.
Also how do they know if someone bought a gun, ammo or some other object's with the credit card?

Example: some years ago I bought a new tent and a few sleeping bag liners and the price campout to close to $500, so how could they tell if I bought a tent and other objects and not some cheep import 1911 pistol and some ammo?
 
Kris Gandillon

Kris Gandillon

The Other Curmudgeon
_______________
Macgyver said:
I don't know how they expect this to work.
Credit card processors do categorize retailers. But there is no date other than total dollar amounts and card info sent between.

If you bought a gun or ammo at Walmart it's just going to be a retail store.
Click to expand...
This was discussed the last time this came up. Big box stores where guns and ammo are only a portion of their sales.

Such retailers would be forced to set up the POS terminals in the gun and ammo department with the “guns and ammo” merchant code so that those sales would be captured separately.

The credit card processors capture no item level detail about the transaction, just the total amount of the transaction, the merchant, date and time, card number, approved or declined.

They will likely set a threshold transaction value level to produce a “Suspicious Transaction” report and look at cumulative “guns and ammo” purchases on the same credit card at multiple different “guns and ammo” merchants. What that threshold value will be and what they would do with such a report remains to be seen unless they plan to look into every such purchase.

This only helps identify someone buying a bunch of “guns and ammo” over time…think the Las Vegas shootings a few years ago which is what ultimately triggered the first steps down this “merchant code” path.

This does nothing to identify somebody buying a single firearm and a few boxes of ammo and then going on a killing spree. Their purchase would just become undifferentiated noise in the midst of all similar such purchases.

Bottom line: As with most gun laws it will have zero effect on stopping criminals intent on killing others.
 
end game

end game

Veteran Member
Article I, Section 3, Clause 3

The prohibition embodied in this clause is not to be narrowly construed in the context of traditional forms but is to be interpreted in accordance with the designs of the framers so as to preclude trial by legislature, which would violate the separation of powers. The clause thus prohibits all legislative acts, “no matter what their form, that apply either to named individuals or to easily ascertainable members of a group in such a way as to inflict punishment on them without a judicial trial.
 
P

Publius

TB Fanatic
This will do nothing to prevent crime, but a way for government to collect a list of who owns a firearm, in this country they are not they are not supposed to know this.

The resent Supreme Court decision and ruling. All guns laws must pass the text of the second amendment, the history and tradition at the time it was adopted.
Text, History and Tradition at the time and around the time the bill of rights was adopted (What Laws Were In Place in 1791?).

The State must prove persuasive evidence that similar restrictions or laws existed in the historical record.
 
Kris Gandillon

Kris Gandillon

The Other Curmudgeon
_______________
end game said:
…apply either to named individuals or to easily ascertainable members of a group in such a way as to inflict punishment on them without a judicial trial.
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So far, I have not seen any punishments detailed associated with this topic. Only the data collection that would be required.

What they do with that data is where you head down THAT path of identification, detention, judicial prosecution and punishment.
 
end game

end game

Veteran Member
Kris Gandillon said:
So far, I have not seen any punishments detailed associated with this topic. Only the data collection that would be required.

What they do with that data is where you head down THAT path of identification, detention, judicial prosecution and punishment.
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The data collection is the violation.

Firearms Owners’ Protection Act (FOPA), 1986

Under 18 U.S.C. §926, the Attorney General is authorized
to prescribe the rules and regulations necessary to carry out
the GCA. Section 6 of FOPA amended §926 to prohibit a
registry of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms
transactions. The pertinent language of §926 reads
No such rule or regulation prescribed after the date
of the enactment of the Firearms Owners’
Protection Act may require that records required to
be maintained under this chapter or any portion of
the contents of such records, be recorded at or
transferred to a facility owned, managed, or
controlled by the United States or any State or any
political subdivision thereof, nor that any system of
registration of firearms, firearms owners, or
firearms transactions or dispositions be established.
Nothing in this section expands or restricts the
Secretary’s [Attorney General’s] authority to
inquire into the disposition of any firearm in the
course of a criminal investigation.
(P.L. 99-308, May 19, 1986, 100 Stat. 449, 459.)
 
C

Capt. Senile

Contributing Member
If the credit card companies tell Colorado "No, we're not going to do that." what's Colorado going to do?
Take the credit card companies to court? Credit card companies can just stop doing business in Colorado.
Who wields the fiscal power? "Sorry, Denver city council. All city purchases are disallowed as your city Visa is no longer valid". It can be taken to the absurd.

Colorado is living up to its name. It means Red in Spanish.
Buncha commies.
 
Bubble Head

Bubble Head

Has No Life - Lives on TB
A lot of people here in Colorado have used Wyoming for gun, ammo and accessories purchases. Been doing that for years since the commies writing is on the wall. They want total confiscation as the end game. Just another step in the commie process. The bill they are about to send to Polis now will pretty much make all firearms illegal. By the way he plans on running for President.
 
Macgyver

Macgyver

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Capt. Senile said:
If the credit card companies tell Colorado "No, we're not going to do that." what's Colorado going to do?
Take the credit card companies to court? Credit card companies can just stop doing business in Colorado.
Who wields the fiscal power? "Sorry, Denver city council. All city purchases are disallowed as your city Visa is no longer valid". It can be taken to the absurd.

Colorado is living up to its name. It means Red in Spanish.
Buncha commies.
Click to expand...
Exactly.
There are 80-90 major credit card merchant processors in the US that a retailer can choose from to use.
So they would all have to rewrite their code. They are only the intermediaries between you and the big 3. Visa/mc/amex.

And your pos system would need to be rewritten as well.

I don't see anyone doing this. Plus there is all the PCI compliance that goes along with it.

Federal transaction requirements would probably have to change as well.

If anything this will just force retailers to go cash/check and completely cut off Colorado's intent.
 
rhughe13

rhughe13

Heart of Dixie
Can you imagine! Somebody will end up selling ammo on the streets now. Ammo will be coming across the border. We'll need an ammo Czar. It could get crazy folks.
 
Southside

Southside

Has No Life - Lives on TB
rhughe13 said:
Can you imagine! Somebody will end up selling ammo on the streets now. Ammo will be coming across the border. We'll need an ammo Czar. It could get crazy folks.
Click to expand...
The way things are going, I can see this happening anyway!
 
Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
Before my accident, I sold my “AR kit” to a chuch member who wanted to give it to his adult son as a Christmas gift. I’d gathered all the components for the build a couple years ago, but never got around to building it. When my money ran out, I had to sell it. Anyway, his son lives in Colorado. Just this last week, I gave the dad two 30-rd mags for that gun. Does anyone know the magazine (and AR for that matter) laws in that state?
 
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