Visa, Mastercard paUSes plan to track gun purchases

FILE-Assault weapons and handguns are seen for sale at Capitol City Arms Supply, January 16, 2013 in Springfield, Ill. Visa has stepped down its decision to allow purchases at gun shops, a victory for conservative groups and 2nd Amendment advocates who felt that tracking gun shop purchases would inadvertently discriminate against legal firearms purchases. AP Photo Seth Perlman, File NEW YORK AP - Visa has decided to stop selling guns at gun shops, a significant win for conservative groups and Second Amendment advocates who felt that tracking gun shop purchases would inadvertently discriminate against legal firearms purchases.

At the same time, the decision is a defeat for gun control groups. There was a hope that categorizing credit and debit card purchases would allow authorities to see red flags — like significant ammunition purchases — before a mass shooting could happen.

A spokesman for the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Bloomberg News reported Thursday that Mastercard is pausing its plans.

After Visa and Mastercard announced their plans to implement a separate merchant category code for gun shop purchases, the payment networks received a lot of criticism from the gun lobby as well as conservative politicians. A group of GOP state attorneys general wrote a letter to the payment networks, threatening legal action against Visa and Mastercard if they don't move forward with their plan.

Visa stated in a statement that the legal pushback was partially the reason they stopped their implementation.

The state actions that are intended to disrupt the intent of global standards have resulted in a lot of confusion and legal uncertainty in the payments ecosystem, according to the company.

The plan of Visa and Mastercard would not have tracked individual gun purchases. It would have broken out purchases at gun stores in a separate category. But not all large purchases at a gun shop would have been considered a red flag.

A large purchase of a gun safe, which costs several thousands of dollars, would have been seen as a big purchase at a gun shop, even though the safe is considered a responsible tool of gun ownership and unrelated to potential mass shootings.