The gun business has been cleverly exempt from standard banking oversight. We sought out to end the exception.
Learn MoreBanks can and must flag such suspicious activity in the same way that they report known patterns of identity theft, fraud, or human trafficking to law enforcement officials.
But to do so, the nation’s stand-alone gun and ammunition stores must be categorized under a new and unique Merchant Category Code within the financial system. Historically, gun stores are categorized as "sporting goods" or "miscellaneous" because no specific label existed. Guns Down America worked closely with Amalgamated Bank, Giffords, and Brady to establish the necessary Merchant Category Code. Our efforts were a success and the International Standards Organization (ISO) agreed to establish a code in September of 2022.
Amassing an arsenal is expensive, which is why mass shooters and gun traffickers turn to credit cards. Gun stores are exempt from the financial industry's most basic fraud prevention and reporting system. Our new report demonstrates that banks and credit card companies have an opportunity to stop gun violence before it happens if that exemption ends, but the gun industry is standing in the way. Changing that has the power to save lives.
Our report, The Gun Store Exception, found that credit cards have been used to finance dozens of gun crimes since 2019.
