This past Wednesday, the state of Florida put out a forceful response to the various credit card companies that are seeking to kick off a new trend of tracking the sales of both ammunition and guns, claiming that if they go through with their plan that the state will be taking strides to create legislation to punish their policies.
Mastercard, American Express, and Visa have all reportedly chosen to put a flag on all firearm purchases at gun stores into their own category in their system in an effort that has been heavily lauded extreme-left gun control advocates.
The various credit card companies started using these new Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) in the wake of them being put into effect by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
Jimmy Patronis, the Florida Chief Financial Officer (CFO), put out his own extremely strongly worded statement warning that if these companies do choose to go through with their plans that they will be looking at being slammed with penalties from the state of Florida.
“The second amendment is foundational to our American way of life,” stated Patronis. “The idea that law-abiding Americans would be put on some kind of corporate watchlist is disturbing. Our rights come from our Creator, not the government, and especially not big corporations. It is clear that the actions by these credit card companies are part of a larger effort to curtail God-given constitutional rights of Americans. It is also symptomatic of the virus known as ESG, which is part of a global effort to socially re-engineer the country that we love so much. There is no way we are going to allow that to happen in the free state of Florida.”
“If we come to the legislative session and companies like Visa, Mastercard and American Express are generating these reports to create a chilling effect against the purchase of firearms, then I’ll work with the Legislature to pass a law penalizing businesses who are targeting the right to bear arms,” he went on to state. “We’ve seen a groundbreaking ruling come out of the Fifth Circuit limiting corporations’ ability to curtail American’s constitutional rights, so we are on solid legal footing to pursue a bill protecting Floridians 2nd Amendment Rights. We can also take it a step further by barring these companies from doing any business with the State of Florida. We will send a message out to these large corporations that if you are interested in doing business with Florida, you need to make sure that you’re protecting Floridians right to arm and defend themselves.”
