While states like Tennessee are moving to safeguard privacy, as we reported earlier this week, Colorado is enacting laws that essentially gives them the power to spy on their residents.
On May 1, Governor Jared Polis signed legislation that requires payment card networks like Visa or Mastercard to provide a specific code, known as a merchant code, for businesses that sell firearms and ammunition.
Sponsored by Senator Tom Sullivan, D-Centennial, and Representatives Javier Mabrey, D-Denver, and Meg Froelich, D-Englewood, SB24-066 allows banks and credit card companies to track firearm and ammunition purchases.
The law is being sold on the premise that it can somehow stop “gun violence” by monitoring what and how much of something people purchase.
“Prior to the tragic Aurora movie theater shooting, the shooter had purchased over $11,000 worth of firearms, ammunition, and military gear in the weeks leading up to the shooting, ultimately killing 12 innocent Coloradans,” Froelich said. “Credit card merchant codes are an effective tool already used by law enforcement to combat human trafficking and money laundering crimes, and our law will expand this tool to help us stop gun violence before it impacts our communities. Our new law is crucial in giving law enforcement a head start in preventing gun violence so we can save Colorado lives.”
Notwithstanding the invasion of privacy, and the lack of transparency on how or when such information would be provided to law enforcement, the bill is unable to make a connection between purchases by law-abiding citizens or criminals, for obvious reasons. One would have to be able to read minds in order to know intent, regardless of the quantity of ammunition or the number of firearms purchased. Furthermore, there is no state or federal limitation on the amount of ammunition or the number of firearms that one can own. The premise of the law is completely speculative.
The new law represents just one more overreach from a state that is already doing its very best to infringe on the Second Amendment rights of its citizens. Last year Colorado Democratic Governor Jared Polis signed four gun bills into law that included a minimum waiting period to purchase a firearm, raising the age requirement for gun possession, expanding the state’s red flag laws, and removing liability protection for manufacturers whose firearms or ammunition may have defects.
