Just weeks ago, gun control advocates were doing happy dances as credit card companies prepared to implement a new merchant category code (MCC) that would ease the way, sort of, for tracking gun purchases. Now, under public pressure, financial institutions are backing away from those codes and supporters of self-defense rights are celebrating. It's an illustration of how quickly the high ground can change hands on America's political battlefields. But it also shows how politicized business has become, and how difficult it is for private companies to navigate between the country's political tribes.
In February, Discover announced it would implement a new merchant category code to be used to identify transactions with firearms dealers, and implied that its competitors in the credit card business were doing the same. The code was rolled out last year by the International Standards Organization after intense lobbying by anti-gun American politicians and Amalgamated Bank, an institution that uses financial leverage to promote "sustainable organizations, progressive causes, and social justice."
