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American Express, Visa, Mastercard move ahead with code to track gun store purchases in California
Major credit card companies are moving to make a merchant code available for firearm and ammunition retailers in order to comply with a new California law that will allow banks to potentially track suspicious gun purchases and report them to law enforcement, CBS News has learned.
Retailers are assigned merchant codes based on the types of goods they sell, and the codes allow banks and credit card companies to detect purchase patterns. Currently gun shops are lumped in with other types of retailers, such as sporting goods stores.
Mastercard, Visa and American Express initially agreed to implement a standalone code for firearm sellers, but later paused their work on it after receiving blowback from Second Amendment advocates concerned tracking gun purchases would infringe on the rights of legal gun owners.
Gun control activists hope the code, approved by an international organization in 2022, can be used as a tool to help identify suspect purchases and, consequently, stop gun crime, including mass shootings. Proponents say a code for firearms merchants would allow banks and credit unions to alert law enforcement of potentially suspicious purchasing patterns in the same way they already flag other types of transactions, such as those that suggest identity theft or terrorist financing.
While a merchant code for standalone firearm and ammunition sellers would yield data that shows a transaction was made at a gun store, the credit card companies say the code would not provide details about the customer or insight into individual items that were purchased.
At least seven Republican-controlled state legislatures have banned the code while nine other legislatures are considering similar legislation. However, deep blue California passed a law requiring retailers that primarily sell firearms to adopt it by May 2025.
Last month, executives from Mastercard, Visa, and American Express each wrote to congressional Democrats assuring them the code would be available to retailers in California by that deadline, according to documents obtained by CBS News.
“The applicable standalone merchants in California primarily engaged in the sale of firearms will be required to utilize the code,” wrote Mastercard executive Tucker Foote.
The letters from credit card executives reflect the tricky political waters the companies find themselves in.
“With respect to the [firearm merchant code], there continues to be a tremendous amount of regulatory and legislative uncertainty,” wrote Visa senior vice president, Robert B. Thomson, III, adding that the company will endeavor to comply with the requirements in California. “Given the conflicting state laws on this topic and the likelihood that other states will enact legislation to either restrict or mandate the code, our implementation pause remains in effect.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat said in a statement, “It’s a start that credit card companies have committed to comply with the [merchant code] law in California, but we need implementation across the country if we’re going to do everything we can to prevent gun violence.”
“The sooner credit card companies and banks begin using the new [merchant code] for gun retailers and tracking suspicious gun purchases, the more mass shootings we will have a shot at preventing before they occur,” Warren added.
Advocates for gun violence prevention continue to push for the code’s implementation despite efforts by states to stymie it. A new report from Guns Down America calls for federal legislation to resolve the conflict between states and argues the code could prevent violence stemming from cases of straw purchases, gun trafficking, and mass casualty events.
The report cites eight mass shootings that they say could have been prevented, including the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater shooting, and the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, because each perpetrator used credit cards to purchase large arsenals in a short period of time.
“If a system for collecting and flagging suspicious gun and ammunition sales had been in place over the past 15 years, law enforcement officials would have had the opportunity to potentially intervene and prevent multiple mass shootings,” the report says.
Hudson Munoz, the executive director of Guns Down America, said the credit card companies’ attempts to “stay neutral on this issue” risks “uninhibited criminal abuse of the payment system.” The organization is calling on the companies to make the gun store code available in every state where it has not been banned.
An American climber was rescued after she and another alpinist from the U.K. were stranded for two days at more than 20,000 feet in the Himalayan mountains.
Michelle Dvorak, 31, and Fay Manners, 37, went missing on Thursday after their equipment and food tumbled down a ravine while trekking up India’s Chaukhamba mountain, CBS News partner BBC reported.
The pair sent an emergency message but search and rescue teams were unable to find them.
INDIAN AIR FORCE/Handout via REUTERS
Manners told the BBC they were “terrified” as they tried to make part of the descent down the treacherous mountains without supplies.
“I watched the bag tumble down the mountain and I immediately knew the consequence of what was to come,” she said. “We had none of our safety equipment left. No tent. No stove to melt snow for water. No warm clothes for the evening.”
The terrifying ordeal intensified when it started to snow. They took cover on a ledge while waiting for rescuers.
“I felt hypothermic, constantly shaking and with the lack of food my body was running out of energy to keep warm,” Manners said.
The rescue was made difficult because of the conditions, including bad weather, fog and high altitude.
“The helicopter flew passed again, couldn’t see us. We were destroyed,” Manners told the BBC.
INDIAN AIR FORCE/Handout via REUTERS
On the second day, the pair began to cautiously abseil down the mountain. They spotted a team of French climbers coming toward them. Manners said they shared their equipment and food and contacted the helicopter company with an exact location.
“I cried with relief knowing we might survive,” she said.
The Indian Air Force said in a post on the X social media platform that their helicopter airlifted the climbers from 17,400 feet after “battling two days of bad weather.”
Chaukhamba is a mountain massif in the Garhwal Himalaya in northern India.
President Biden approved the mobilization of another 500 active-duty troops to North Carolina to assist in the recovery efforts after the deadly and devastating Hurricane Helene.
“With a total of 1,500 troops now supplementing a robust on-the-ground effort – including more than 6,100 National Guardsmen and more than 7,000 Federal personnel – the Biden-Harris Administration is mobilizing all relevant resources to support families as they begin their road to rebuilding,” the White House said in a statement Sunday.
Mr. Biden previously announced that the federal government would cover “100%” of costs for debris removal and emergency protective measures in North Carolina for six months. The Biden administration has also released more than $137 million in federal funds – including $100 million in transportation funds for North Carolina to begin rebuilding damaged roads and bridges.
Mike Stewart / AP
More than 800 people unable to return home are staying in lodging provided through FEMA, and 22 shelters are still housing nearly 1,000 people as mobile feeding operations continue to help survivors.
“My Administration is sparing no resource to support families as they begin their road to rebuilding,” Biden said. “We will continue working hand-in-hand with local and state leaders – regardless of political party and no matter how long it takes.”
Earlier Sunday, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tills called for more resources to bolster the relief effort and likened the damage to Hurricane Katrina’s mark on Louisiana in 2005.
“The scope of this storm is more like Katrina,” he told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan”. “It may look like a flood to the outside observer, but again, this is a landmass roughly the size of the state of Massachusetts, with damage distributed throughout. We have to get maximum resources on the ground immediately to finish rescue operations.”
Mr. Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have all traveled to some of the impacted regions.
Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic damage from Florida into the Appalachian mountains and killed more than 225 people across multiple states. That number includes 114 killed in North Carolina alone.
The White House said Mr. Biden has also been briefed on Hurricane Milton, which is forecast to make landfall in Florida’s Tampa Bay area as a major storm on Wednesday.
U.S. disaster relief chief blasts false claims about Helene response
Deanne Criswell, who leads the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said on Sunday that the recent false claims and conspiracy theories about the federal response to the storm are “demoralizing” aid workers.
“It’s frankly ridiculous, and just plain false. This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people,” she said. “It’s really a shame that we’re putting politics ahead of helping people, and that’s what we’re here to do. We have had the complete support of the state,” she said, referring to North Carolina.
Joe Raedle/ Getty Images
Republicans, led by Trump, have helped foster a frenzy of misinformation over the past week among the communities most devastated by Helene, promoting a number of false claims, including that Washington is intentionally withholding aid to people in Republican areas.
Trump accused FEMA of spending all its money to help immigrants who are in the United States illegally, while other critics assert that the government spends too much on Israel, Ukraine and other foreign countries.
Tillis, a Republican, on Sunday rejected that claim, telling “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that resources being used on immigration is “not yet … affecting the flow of resources to western North Carolina.”
Tillis said the stream of misinformation about relief efforts in North Carolina is a “distraction.”
“I believe that we have to stay focused on rescue operations, recovery operations, clearing operations, and we don’t need any of these distractions on the ground,” Tillis said. “It’s at the expense of hard-working first responders and people that are just trying to recover their lives.”
Mr. Biden said in a statement Sunday that his administration “will continue working hand-in-hand with local and state leaders –- regardless of political party and no matter how long it takes.”
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American and U.K. climbers rescued after 2 days stranded on Himalayan mountains in India
Biden sends more troops to North Carolina for continued Hurricane Helene response
Scene along Twin Cities Marathon: Bananas, Alan Page, pickle juice
American and U.K. climbers rescued after 2 days stranded on Himalayan mountains in India
Biden sends more troops to North Carolina for continued Hurricane Helene response