By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics
A bill being proposed in the state Senate would allow credit card companies to assign codes to the purchase of firearms and ammunition. Sponsors of the bill say such tracking would allow law enforcement to track “suspicious activity” that could lead to crime.
Senate Bill 066 was discussed last week by the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee. If it passes, the bill would require payment networks, such as credit card companies, to provide processors with a newly developed merchant category code, or MCC, that will specifically be assigned to firearms and ammunition. This code, which was established by the International Organization for Standardization, or ISO, in 2022, must be assigned by processors to each firearms merchant they serve.
Bill sponsor, Sen. Tom Sullivan, D- Centennial, said he became aware of the new MCC for firearms while listening to a podcast. By tracking financial transactions, he said that every other industry is required to use an MCC. Because of this, law enforcement can identify patterns and potentially prevent crimes such as money laundering and sex trafficking.
“Credit cards have been repeatedly used to finance mass shootings, and merchant codes would have allowed the credit card companies to recognize his alarming pattern of behavior and refer it to law enforcement,” he said. “This bill will give us more tools to protect people, and make it easier to stop illegal firearms-related activity like straw purchases before disaster strikes.”