Virginia Democrat Introduces Credit Card Tracking Bill – This Is BAD News!

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This shouldn’t be any surprise to people concerned about government overreach and Big Tech’s data gathering on U.S. citizens. This is exactly the kind of thing that Edward Snowden was warning people about.

Here’s the deal: a Virginia Democrat, Jennifer Wexton, has proposed a bill which would use your credit card purchases to track your gun purchases, and history shows that this data will be used against you (hat tip to here for the lead). Noah Shepardson writes,

A new gun control bill calls for banks and credit card companies to track and provide transaction data to the feds on some firearm purchases as a way of tracking people who the government suspects might be planning mass shootings.

Rep. Jennifer Wexton’s (D–Va.) “Gun Violence Prevention Through Financial Intelligence Act” would require the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to “request information from financial institutions for the purpose of developing an advisory about the identification and reporting of suspicious activity.” The bill’s aim is to identify a consistent purchasing pattern among people who buy firearms and firearm accessories in order to conduct “lone wolf acts of terror” and expose how the firearms market in the United States is exploited by would-be mass shooters.

“Banks, credit card companies, and retailers have unique insight into the behavior and purchasing patterns that can help identify and prevent mass shootings,” Wexton explained in a statement. “The red flags are there—someone just needs to be paying attention.”

Gun control advocates will ask what the problem is that gun owners will have with this kind of tracking. Shepardson continues,

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Wexton’s bill assumes it’s possible to tell who is a threat based on tracking credit card activity. Unfortunately, government’s past attempts to identify “red flags” by analyzing transaction data has resulted in, as Reason‘s Elizabeth Nolan Brown puts it, banks “cast[ing] as wide a net as possible,” when deciding what activity gets reported. Banks fear the consequences of being accused of not doing enough to comply with reporting laws and requests. 

Because, you know, that’s not ripe for abuse by any kind of overzealous government bureaucrat or totalitarian government, right? And aren’t the people who would advocate this kind of tracking the same people accusing our current President of trying to implement a totalitarian regime? It seems that they haven’t considered the unintended consequences of their proposal which is, sadly, typical for them.

If you’re one of those people who think this kind of government program won’t be abused, read what David Codrea writes,

Naturally, Everytown, that never saw an infringement it didn’t try to ram down gun owners’ throats, is all on board with the idea. And just as naturally, interested flacks like Joseph Moreno, a former federal prosecutor and FBI consultant who is a partner at the financial services law firm Cadwalader, is out there selling this abomination as “moderate middle ground that privacy and Second Amendment advocates should be able to meet in the middle on.”

That’s grabberspeak for anyone who is against it must be an extremist, designed to appeal to the ignorant and to “moderate Republicans.” That means anyone against it can now be smeared as exactly the type of “lone wolf domestic terrorist homegrown violent extremist” Wexton’s bill, H.R. 5132, pretends it can deter.

After all, Moreno assures us, “We’re not talking about banning any kind of purchases or a federal registry.”

Not for now, but let the Democrats secure majorities and Katie bar the door. Meanwhile, here’s what they are really talking about even if they don’t admit it here, understanding that they will happily take increments on the way to getting it all: Such steps would include banning private sales. And imagine what enforcers doing the bidding of citizen disarmament enthusiasts could do with information putting not only targets in their sights, but also guidance on how to word the warrants. And once this jackboot is in the door, imagine how much wider it can be kicked open. Case in point, be careful about using credit cards on state-determined “legal product” purchases.

Meanwhile, the street gangs doing the brunt of the killings in urban Democrat strongholds will continue operating as usual, undeterred.

Look, anyone who has taken the time to actually read history (as opposed to simply reading reinterpretations of history by social justice warriors) knows that giving a government the power to track anything about their citizens will lead to abuse of that information in order to control their citizens. It’s happened over and over and over. Why else do you think that all totalitarian regimes have strong gun control laws?

People in Virginia need to pay attention to this proposal and make sure that it does not get passed. And people in the rest of the U.S. need to pay attention to their legislatures to make sure that anti-gunners there don’t get any “bright” ideas.

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40 COMMENTS

  1. After all, Moreno assures us, “We’re not talking about banning any kind of purchases or creating a Federal Registry”. That’s exactly what ATF Form 4473 does, create a Federal Registry, otherwise why do they require the firearm’s serial number be recorded? ATF knows every firearm you have purchased since these forms were introduced, and if your state is like MD, you had to register all firearms owned prior to 2A infringement!

    • And The Govt Held Russian interference on CC Fraud at Home depot.WTF? Roger! You mean The NSA and our Own Govt Hacked into Our Private affairs.Since Obama Our Nation has not been the same as we knew her..the tracking Bill violates our Republic 4th Amendment Rights But Hey So does The DHS and TSA and More.Let the Gays run AMerica since their formation of the CIA and So far Obama( a CIA Operative) and his Puke are doing fine job.

      • Michael, FYI….,the feds have been tracking legal gun owners long before Obama. Forget Obama people…..for Gods sake we have congressmen now who are discriminating against us. Crooks don’t use credit cards to buy guns. Let’s focus on current assholes. Thank you.

      • Don’t look now, but the government is synomous with rhe word packrat, they never throw anything away…if you think a record has been expunged because it was supposed to be or you asked it to happen, think again….it is still there. What you have here and with the NSA collection of Meta data is just more of a more legislated and organized approach to keeping dossiers or rather forming them. It is like juvinial records, are not supposed to be accessible, then why keep them, duh. And by the way your individual medical records are now accessible bu several government agencies, the law where that was made legal was TARP.

  3. Enough with govt impairment of legal firearm ownership! Let USA be free. Don’t we have enough govt interfering our lives? Vote out all anti gun policy and politics from state and local positions.

  4. Big freekin deal. Just take cash out and pay for it that way. Remember this over reach next time you go to vote. If you continue to vote for these same morons then you deserve all the communistic over reach you get.

  5. This is in my understanding a direct violation of the fourth amendment and should not be up for consideration

  8. Perhaps the people of Virginia should demand an investigation into the financial behavior of all of its political officeholders so they can insure that none of the elected of the state are crooked or using their offices to enrich their personal fortunes! These days of intimidating the wee people while the rich politicians profit within their office should end! Especially the greedy Democrats!

  9. This really a stupid bill. Does anyone believe our current law enforcement doesn’t have this capability through our courts or otherwise if they deem necessary?

  10. SOCIALIST COMMUNISM IS SHOWING ITS UGLY HEAD IN ONE OF THE ORIGINAL THIRTEEN FOUNDING STATES. THIS IS A PURE SLAP IN THE FACE OF ALL WHO FOUGHT TO FREE THEMSELVES FROM SLAVERY OF THE EUROPEAN ELITE TYRANNICAL DICTATORSHIPS AND NOW THESE BASTARDS ARE TRYING TO TURN THIS COUNTRY BACK HUNDREDS OF YEARS AND BECOME THE NEW ELITE DICTATORS. TIME FOR ALL GOOD PATRIOTS TO COME TOGETHER AND DEFEND OUR CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOMS.

  11. The people of Virginia have NO ONE TO BLAME, but, themselves. They Voted these sick Democrats into office.
    NOW lets see, how they take care of it The right place to start, is at the top. They cant say that they did not see this coming. Gun control, did not just start, yesterday. The same way the Democratic party did not get this way over night. VIRGINIA, don’t let a few take the whole cake.

    • If you will just take the time to look around, you will quickly see that the 95 corridor (read that non white) region of our state always tries to DICTATE how the remaining residents MUST live. They are embarking on a very dangerous journey that will most definitely affect your state at some future date. I, for now, live 10 miles from KY and 28 miles from TN. THEY in Richmond don’t give a rodents rear about anyone outside of NOVA!

    • Sounds more like exmayor of sewer city NYC BOUGHT AN PAID FOR THE CRIMINAL ELECTION IN VIRGINIA HOW ABOUT HITLER BLOOMBURG

  14. Always the same. Just a different day. We all complain, myself included, knowing full well that true power lies with the people, and yet, none of us, again, myself included, do anything about it except snivel at the end of the articles. We’re all pathetic and we’re all doomed.

  15. Always the same. Just a different day. We all complain, myself included, knowing full well that true power lies with the people, and yet, none of us, again, myself included, do anything about it except snivel at the end of the articles. We’re all pathetic and we’re all doomed.

  16. To USA, which is why we need to Continue supporting President Trump in 2020 and keep the Senator and Retain Congress, if not the PC Liberal Communist Democrats will continue with Mulsim BHO agendas to destroy America. Merry Christmas God and USA and a happy New Year to all.

  17. Anyone remember when the government started requiring banks to report transactions over $5,000 later raised to $10,000? It was to fight drug dealing and then terrorism was added. The results? Now people are being arrested, property confiscated, etc for “arranging their transactions to avoid the $10K reporting”. Yep, now you get arrested for NOT violating the limit!

  18. No, this isn’t a dumb law and there are no unintended consequences when it comes to tyrannical criminals in government. They know exactly what they are doing, whittling away at the whole of the constitution. It began back with Wilson and has steadily progressed since. All the party’s are to blame and it is because they are more afraid of their own citizens than real threats from the outside. They think that by letting refugees, illegal immigrants, Muslims and other dis-assimilated people into the country, they can tame them and at least get them to vote for them. Hell, they will give them welfare benefits, free education, health care and anything else they desire. Some things Trump has shown is how corrupt most all of them are, how easy it is to “solve ” problems, how they want to control the people and enrich themselves while on the public trough. They don’t want to solve a problem as it guarantees job security and just might put some bureaucratic loon out of business. This once great country is a mess and the sun isn’t shining on the horizon. The workers should all go on strike for a week or two, oh, but that’s right, they have been too successful at having us go in debt for the goods that we think we have just got to have and are produced by company’s that are scamming us and working against us. At any rate, keep the powder dry, and your minds open.

  21. We pay cash for our purchases. Cash can’t be easily tracked. Don’t own a Debit Card and use the Credit Card sparingly. Government can kiss “old rusty”!

  23. You knew when you voted for these socialist politicians what was coming so live with it or remove everyone of them from office immediately, and never vote for anyone one that doesn’t stand for our Constitution. And our Freedoms

Comments are closed.