The recent news that the major credit card companies will be adding a firearm and ammunition-specific merchant category code (MCC) for all purchases of those items has a lot of gun-rights advocates, well, up in arms. Larry Keane of the National Shooting Sports Foundation is one of them. This “isn’t about tracking guns,” he warns. “It’s about tracking you.”

Andrew Ross Sorkin, a New York Times columnist who proposed this idea years ago, penned a column outlining the “next steps.” That revealed that the pressure campaign by federal lawmakers, state attorneys general, state lawmakers and activist banks on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to create a unique MCC for gun retailers was just the beginning. It was never about gathering data to aide law enforcement. It is, and always has been, a concerted effort to pressure credit card companies to deny lawful purchases of firearms and put every single gun purchaser on a watchlist.

Since the federal government is forbidden by law from creating and maintaining a searchable database of gun owners, this task is being outsourced to private industry.

An international body of unelected bureaucrats, not accountable to the American public, is setting the conditions that will allow credit card companies to track, categorize and report “suspicious” purchases to law enforcement. This is the definition of an Orwellian society.

When Sorkin pitched the idea, it was in a column titled “How Banks Could Control Gun Sales If Washington Won’t.” The agenda was obvious, and Democrats soon jumped on board.

This idea was backed by gun control front-woman Shannon Watts. Antigun politicians like U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) who introduced legislation that would require the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) to give guidance to banks so they can report “suspicious financial activity.”

The bill is fraught with civil liberty violations and not just those freedoms protected by the Second Amendment. Privacy rights — specifically those related to finances — would go by the wayside.

So, how does this new think work?

The new MCC would apply to firearm retailers sales where the customer uses a credit card to pay. The code would allow credit card giants to monitor transactions at firearm retailers. In other words, someone buying new waders, boots, bibs, decoys, calls, bags, a shotgun and ammunition would all be specifically coded in a total lump sum the credit card companies could examine.

The credit card giants wouldn’t be able to peer into the shopping basket to see that of the thousands of dollars someone might spend at the beginning of a hunting season would be mostly for gear, only a large purchase totaling thousands of dollars. That could raise a flag as a “suspicious” purchase.

They could deny the transaction. They would report the transaction to law enforcement and a law-abiding gun owner could be put on a watchlist, like the terrorist watchlist or the government’s “No Fly” list. They could expect a visit from law enforcement asking them about their purchase, or attempted purchase.

Keane concludes:

This assault on privacy and Second Amendment rights isn’t finished. NSSF will work with Congress, state legislatures and attorneys general to battle back and protect the industry and those it serves. This new gun store MCC will not protect America from criminals but it does serve the demands of gun control zealots to chill and then kill lawful gun ownership in America.

Read the whole thing here.