Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed legislation Friday that prohibits credit card companies from tracking gun sales in Florida.
His office posted an announcement to the Florida Governor’s home page saying, “Today, Governor Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill (SB) 7054 and SB 214 to protect the personal finances of Floridians from government overreach and woke corporate monitoring.”
The post noted, “SB 214 prohibits credit card companies from using firearm-specific Merchant Category Codes and institutes a fine for violations of Florida’s consumer protections against gun owner registries.”
On August 28, 2022, Breitbart News noted Gabby Giffords’ gun control group, Giffords, was urging major credit companies to flag gun and ammunition purchases via the new code. On August 30 Breitbart News noted Democrat New York lawmakers were urging major credit card companies to create and use a new firearms-specific code which would in effect flag gun purchases in the state and around the country.
In early September 2022, Breitbart News reported that Visa caved to pressure from Democrats and gun control groups and agreed to use a new merchant code to track firearm purchases. Other credit card companies caved as well.
Breitbart News pointed out that Discover would begin tracking gun purchases in April 2023. But the public outcry became so great that all the credit card companies abandoned the plan.
However, Democrats reacted by trying to get the DOJ to pressure the companies into implementing the tracking scheme. If the cards do put in into practice, DeSantis is fighting to be sure gun sales in Florida are excluded from the tracking process.
National Shooting Sports Foundation’s general counsel and senior vice president Larry Keane commented on DeSantis’s efforts, saying, “Governor DeSantis is standing up against a ‘woke’ initiative borne from the efforts of antigun Wall Street banks and their gun control allies in the media to use lawful private transactions as a means to usher in gun control.”
“No law-abiding American should be subjected to having their name and financial data being added to a government-accessible watchlist simply for exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, ” Keane added. “Governor DeSantis is ensuring that Floridians won’t be held captive by the radical ‘woke’ antigun agenda that seeks to weaponize credit cards in gun owners’ wallets against them.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.