CHARLESTON, W.Va. – West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore plans to fight a new credit card tracking scheme for gun and ammunition purchases vigorously and calls it an effort by liberal lawmakers to undermine citizens’ Second Amendment rights.
“Credit card companies are going to be tracking all your purchases of firearms and ammunition in this country and I think it’s absolutely abhorrent,” Moore said. ” It certainly seems to me to be unconstitutional.”
Moore believes it’s actually a step toward a national gun registry, and this step avoids due process. The proposal came out of a decision made by the International Organization for Standardization in response to a petition for a merchant category code from New York-based Amalgamated Bank.
“This is an end around obviously, outside the legal framework or the ballot box to achieve their left wing ideological goals,” Moore said.
Earlier this year, Moore determined BlackRock Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JP Morgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo & Co. were boycotting investments in fossil fuel companies. Now, those companies can no longer do business with the Treasurer’s Office.
“I am going to stand up and fight against this in the state of West Virginia as I have on various other fronts as it relates to this ESG movement we keep seeing come up, Environmental Social Governance investing mechanisms,” Riley said. ” And here’s the latest effort.”
Moore said there is no timetable for the new code to go into use, but residents should take steps to protect their purchases.
“If I were you I would certainly see if I could certainly write a check or pay cash,” Moore said. ” Secondarily, I would contact my credit card company and tell them I don’t want my transactions coded.”