New legislation signed by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will track credit card purchases of firearms and ammunition by requiring the use of special merchant codes, and Second Amendment advocates are already calling this “government overreach” and an invasion of gun owner privacy.
In a statement from Democrat Hochul’s office, S745/A439 “is refining how credit card companies track purchases at gun dealerships. This gives law enforcement the opportunity to find out exactly who may be stockpiling ammunition. And this is an indicator that something untoward could be happening, so it’s an important data point for us to have.”
A second measure strengthens warning requirements for gun shops, which must now post large signs and provide handouts warning customers about the “dangers” of gun ownership. Ammoland News says this new requirement is “clearly designed to stigmatize lawful gun ownership.”
According to WTEN News, the credit card legislation “changes how credit cards categorize gun vendors.”
But for critics, the legislation goes a step too far, perhaps several steps, by not only treating the Second Amendment as a second-class right, but also by possibly infringing on Fourth Amendment privacy guarantees.
While Hochul, a Democrat, insisted the legislation will “make New Yorkers safer,” the firearms community says the wrong people are being targeted.
In a blistering rebuke of the bills and Hochul, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms zeroed in on the credit card measure.
“Invading the privacy of law-abiding firearms owners and tracking their purchases is Orwellian,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “and is unlikely to accomplish anything other than multiple daily violations of the Fourth Amendment. The very nature of this legislation automatically suspects every gun owner in the state of planning a violent crime and allows their privacy to be violated. This is 2025, not 1984, and ‘Big Brother’ should not be watching anybody.
“The irony here is stunning,” he continued. “Democrats are constantly harping about things they say are a threat to democracy. Shredding the Constitution is the ultimate attack on our democracy.”
He contended this will drive illicit gun sales further underground, noting the bill “underscores how detached from reality these people are.”
“By signing this legislation,” Gottlieb said, “Gov. Hochul has reinforced the belief that she and other Democrats consider gun owners to be second-class citizens whose every move, and every purchase, must be monitored and regulated by a government that treats them with fear and disdain. We are left to wonder which constitutional right Hochul and her colleagues will erode next.”
