NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams and Comptroller Brad Lander are seeking to use the New York City government’s retirement investments as leverage to pressure the credit card industry into launching a system for tracing gun purchases, arguing that such a mechanism could help prevent future mass shootings.
Under current rules, MasterCard, VISA, Amex and other credit card networks must categorize purchases at everything from grocery stores to bicycle shops under specific merchant category codes. But there are no such codes for gun and ammunition retailers — meaning buys in those categories are only listed as “miscellaneous” in credit card reports.
During a Tuesday afternoon press conference at City Hall, Adams, Lander and a cadre of other local officials said establishing a weapon code would enable financial institutions to detect and report suspicious gun purchases to law enforcement, such as an unusually large number of firearms bought over a short time span.
