Big Bother On Firearm Purchasing
Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-10th, wants banks and credit card companies to flag purchases that could signal a person is preparing to carry out a mass shooting, a solution she said could circumvent the usual partisan debate on gun violence.
She introduced a bill that would direct an agency of the Treasury Department to figure out how to track buying patterns the same way the government looks for behavior indicative of money laundering, fentanyl trafficking and human smuggling.
Supporters of the legislation say it builds on existing infrastructure and harnesses law enforcement expertise to try to prevent gun violence without pre-emptively removing guns or further regulating sales — both nonstarters for Second Amendment advocates.
But skeptics say that even if credit card companies, banks and retailers agree to work together to disclose detailed information about sales, the federal government would need a system for analyzing huge amounts of data and deciding when and how to respond.
An effective program would have to track credit card purchases of guns and ammunition as well as equipment such as body armor and night-vision goggles across multiple retailers.
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