United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- Corporate gun control has become a new front that anti-Second Amendment extremists are using in order to take away our rights. While actions like those taken by Salesforce last year grab headlines, along with the abuse of power by Andrew Cuomo to promote the financial blacklisting of the National Rifle Association, other governmental actions don’t get as much coverage, but still carry the potential to devastate our rights.
One such law is HR 5132, also known as the Gun Violence Prevention Through Financial Intelligence Act, introduced by Representative Jennifer Wexton (D-VA). According to a press release by Wexton’s office, the legislation is supported by Bloomberg’s Everytown organization, which is a red flag in and of itself that this legislation is bad for our liberties. Wexton, who defeated pro-Second Amendment Representative Barbara Comstock after major spending by Everytown on her behalf, is acting just like the Bloomberg-bought Virginia Legislature.
In one sense, Everytown supporting this sort of flanking attack on our rights is no surprise when you consider its history. This bill is no different. Just as Everytown egged on Cuomo’s abuses, it is now trying to make exercising Second Amendment rights impossible – and it does so in a stealthy, indirect manner.
What HR 5132 would do, if enacted, is to require the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, also known as FinCEN, to collect information for a year. Why? According to Reason.com, it is to help come up with advisories to help identify “suspicious” firearms transactions or to try to determine if someone is preparing a mass shooting. Sounds innocent or even commendable at first hearing, but since Everytown is backing this, you know there is a catch – or more accurately, multiple catches.
Here’s one of the catches: How does one define a “suspicious” firearm transaction? Reason noted that even Wexton admitted that it’s hard to get that data. Merchants would have to agree to provide it to the banks. It will be difficult to figure out how to send that data, for one thing. Other merchants may not wish to send the data to protect their customers’ privacy.
Those concerns aside, there is a bigger catch: This will invariably trigger far more false positives than it will uncover real threats. There is a simple, logical reason for this: The fact that a lot of people who exercise their Second Amendment rights own more than one firearm. Some own a lot of them.
Even the notion of mass purchases, which occurred prior to a few of the more notorious mass shootings, won’t be a reliable indicator. Collectors may be buying a number of guns at a given time. Yet how would a bank know which is which? They’ll report all of them to be on the safe side. The real threats will be lost in the noise. Why might that be? Consider this: According to the Blaze.com, there were about 74,000 firearm purchases in December 2019 in Virginia. That’s one month in one state. And Virginia, while it has a relatively high population, isn’t as big as say, Pennsylvania, Texas, or other states where firearms ownership is pretty common.
This is why the Gun Violence Prevention Through Financial Intelligence Act is so dangerous. The effort to get the information could be so much trouble for banks or credit card companies that they may decide it is easier to just stop allowing gun purchases with credit cards altogether.
Second Amendment supporters should take the time to contact their Representative and Senators and politely urge them to oppose this legislation. Given the history of how power has already been abused in the name of stripping away our Second Amendment rights, there is no need to give anti-Second Amendment extremists new avenues to abuse power.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.
Ever wonder why Obama paid the Iranians a 1.7 billion dollar pallet of cash? Because even the government knows you can’t track who or where it came from or who or what gets it.
Career criminals in Congress have endangered the American public.
Anti-Constitutionalist’s=Anti-Americans=Enemies of the United States…
“Suspicious firearm transactions?”:
I call B.S. on this one. They already turn their backs on the thousands of 4473 violations by people trying to buy guns while not allowed to by law.
Let me begin with guidance from history: “Fascism is the blending of corporate and government power.” Benito Mussolini. That is why I have been saying for decades that progressive ideology ends in fascism and not Fabian socialism. That being said, this attempt to investigate the innocent is already in place in some progressive utopias like Kalifornia. Monitoring lawful consumption for the purposes of generalized criminal investigation is simply unamerican. But that will not stop progressives. Try the “shoe on the other foot” logical test and see how they react. What if we were to impose a financial monitoring system to… Read more »
Good article, Harold!! Taking the time to do the research and get to “just the facts, ma’am” is how to build a loyal following on Ammoland. We all remember well Obozo’s “Operation Chokepoint” and this strategy to financially impact 2A rights. While consumers can pay cash in person and circumvent this, not so much for LGS dealers, distributors, manufacturers, and ammunition makers. They need banking services to be able to pay for overhead like buildings, utilities, and employees, among other things. What we need is for 2A activists to make securing our financial liberty a priority. NRA will not do… Read more »
I agree, but there’s so much going on at the federal level that I don’t even think it’s on anyone’s mind. There are so many RINOs, too, that are OK with allowing the crimes of the Obozo admin to stand. Totally unacceptable!!
None of this is gonna get fixed, IMO, till Americans realize that the only way to get back to 1776 is to take up arms and kill tyrants! Our nation is being destroyed for a lack of BALLS! No one wants to the the first sorry SOB who gets whacked ’cause he took point!
If it is up to Republicans in Congress to get that done I am not holding my breath. Closet progressives, like 90% of registered republicans kinda like FiSA abuse and other totalitarian tactics.
My Sheep SHOOT BACK.
The investigative method of “follow the money” to detect activities is effective. Laws have been enacted to enhance its easy use by law enforcement. The pretense for these laws include drug enforcement and unreported taxable income. Cash withdrawals from banks have mandatory reporting requirements. This reporting can involve amounts below ten thousand dollars. These laws makes everybody with accounts vulnerable to criminal investigation. The ease of access to credit transactions has always been relatively simple. The subject law is further suppression of the right to privacy and infringes the right to arms. The right to privacy is treated as if… Read more »
Hmmm….another “infringement.” Imagine that. Gun controllers don’t give a damn about catching the bad guys either before or after a “gun violence” event. The bad guy with a gun is critically important to realizing the Socialists’ goal of a Socialist/Communist America. The bad guy with a gun…..or the mentally deficient guy with a gun……or the terribly distraught family member of a gun shooting victim…….or the Feelz-Gooder Social Do-Gooder…..are the politician’s Useful Idiot Tools to achieve his power and control agenda. A politician with a law never stops a bad guy with a gun. He only controls the good guys, which… Read more »
If it can be done to guns it can be done to magazine subscriptions, computer gear, club dues,, donations to political parties, charities, churches, and associations (Such as GOA, NRA, JPFO, for example).
Thank you Harold. While this bill is not new news, we were all discussing the “big data” aspect – as in federal government would have gun registry list for anything purchased on a credit card. I for one was not considering banks simply refusing to do business with us – which as usual is obvious once it is pointed out. In some ways, their refusal would not be much of a problem – as I’d probably switch to cash basis to avoid being entered into the database – but being unable to make internet purchases for anything from retailers such… Read more »
So, the jack booted thug police look at my credit card, debit card, or check transactions. All the bank has is a charge by Academy Sports & Outdoors for $431.92. Was that a Smith & Wesson M&P Compact or was it a ping pong table or saltwater fishing reel? Cell phones? I’m sure they can be monitored, but I doubt they can be powered on when turned off. For certain they can’t turn on a phone with the battery removed (and that makes a case for buying a phone with an easily removable battery, eh? –not an iPhone.) The greater… Read more »
Download a good VPN on your cell phones/home PC’s,etc.
Screw the Banks use a $0.49 Money Order!
The Feds also can raid your Bank Safety Deposit Boxes in Banks, do not keep cash or anything of value in a SD Box.
We can also start our own bank and banking system every time I find a corporation that is against our guns I refuse to buy or use their products, I vote with my cash like Dicks, Target, and many more my large family will Not do business with ever that means today and I he future until we die
Financial gun control is a real threat even further than this article discusses. So many pro-2A supporters talk big about “Come and Take it.” “We will not comply.” But, in reality you will likely walk right down and willingly turn in your guns. When Big Government enacts real financial anti-gun legislation during the next Democrat control of all three branches, radical Butto and Bloomers style confiscation laws will be passed. After a very short amnesty period, your financial account will be frozen…..all checking, savings, CDs, investment and holding accounts, even your paycheck. You will be financially dead until you prove… Read more »
No I will start taking my money by gun point
You may be a pussy but there are millions like me believe it
@None, Even the Clintons, Bidens, and the other big noises in the federal thiefocracy do not take money by gun point. Please consult legal counsel.