Anti-Gun Policy Still Being Practiced By Two Credit Card Companies

THIS JUST IN FROM GUN DIGEST - grumpy

As Gun Digest the Magazine previously reported, Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corporation have refused to process any “non-face-to-face” credit card transactions involving firearms, including business-to-business transactions between federally licensed firearms retailers, distributors and manufacturers. After the National Shooting Sports Foundation alerted gun owners about this situation, Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corporation sent an e-mail to NSSF which claimed the companies were not anti-gun-industry nor anti-gun, and asked NSSF to remove such information from its Web site. In a Jan. 10 letter to the credit card companies, NSSF wrote, “Regrettably, your e-mail serves to confirm the antigun corporate policy of First Data and Citi Merchant Services, and that the article in our publication Bullet Points and subsequent posting to our Web site was based on a correct and accurate understanding of that policy. “It is perfectly legal — in fact commonplace — for a federal firearms licensee in one state to sell a firearm to a non-licensee (consumer) from another state. What you fail to appreciate is that the firearm is not shipped in interstate commerce directly to the consumer. Rather, as required by federal law, the firearm is shipped by the selling licensee to another federal firearms licensee in the state of residence of the consumer who is purchasing the firearm. ... Furthermore, the policy of First Data and Citi Merchant Services interferes with the receiving and shipping of inventory from and to federally licensed firearms retailers, distributors and manufacturers. This inventory supplies not only law-abiding Americans, but military and law enforcement agencies as well. “NSSF will not remove its Web posting, nor will we rescind or alter our story. However, if we receive written confirmation from you that, after having researched the law, First Data and Citi Merchant Services have changed their corporate policy, we will consider publishing that fact in a follow-up story.” Gun owners who want to voice their discontent to senior management at Citi Merchant Services or First Data can find the contact information at the NSSF Web site: www.nssf.org.