Privacy is Priceless. For Everything Else, There’s Discover.
Last updated: March 23, 2026 · Originally published: March 1, 2023
I love it when businesses decide they don’t want my money.
It happens more often than you’d think in a capitalistic system like America’s. When coffee shops and shoe stores put up signs telling me that guns aren’t allowed inside, what they’re really telling me is, “Trace, we don’t want your money.” When Dick’s decided to stop selling modern sporting rifles and handguns, they were really saying, “Trace, there are other places you can buy baseball bats, and you should explore them.” And when Discover decides to put a special tracking code on all gun-store purchases, what they’re telling me is, “Trace, you really ought to transfer this balance (and all the interest you’ll be paying, natch) over to some other card.” Consider it done, Discover! For more details, we’re turning it over to the NSSF’s Larry Keane.
DISCOVER BECOMES FIRST GUN-STORE TRACKING CREDIT CARD
Discover credit cards needs to go slogan shopping. The old ones won’t work now that the credit card financial services company has decided to go along with the newly-assigned Merchant Category Code (MCC) for purchases at firearm retailers.
Here are the past slogans that won’t work anymore.
- It pays to Discover.
- The Card That Pays You Back.
- We treat you like you’d treat you.
- Here to help. Not to sell.
Somehow, they all seem disingenuous now that Discover is selling out customers using their credit cards at firearm retailers.
Discover Financial Services announced it will begin using the new controversial codes in April. Reuters reported that Discover will become the first credit card company to use the specific code for purchases at a firearm retailer.
“We remain focused on continuing to protect and support lawful purchases on our network while protecting the privacy of cardholders,” Discover said in its statement to Reuters. To date, no other credit card providers have announced they will adopt the new code.
Discover will track purchases at firearm retailers, but still won’t be able to see what is listed on the sales receipt. This was the brainchild of Andrew Ross Sorkin, a New York Times columnist who proposed that credit card companies and banks could play a pivotal role in ushering gun control outside of public policy channels.
‘Woke’ Banking Gone Wild
That idea of sidestepping Congress and state legislatures to have nameless and unaccountable Wall Street banking executives monitoring and even curtailing Second Amendment rights sounded too good to pass up for Amalgamated Bank’s CEO Priscilla Sims Brown. Amalgamated Bank, a “socially-responsible” bank, pressured the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for the specific MCC to categorize firearm retailers. That’s the same bank that refuses to do business with anyone in the gun industry but bankrolls the Democratic National Committee and Political Action Committees including Biden-Harris Democrats, Ready for Hillary (which is Hillary Clinton’s Super PAC), Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) Warren Democrats and former U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) PAC, among others.
Real Clear Investigations writer Ben Weingarten exposed the bank for what it truly is. “As the New York Times said of Amalgamated, it is ‘the left’s private banker.’”
Amalgamated Bank pressured the ISO to adopt Sorkin’s firearm retailer MCC proposal several times. The first time was in October of 2021, but was rejected. Amalgamated Bank tried again in February 2022 but was unsuccessful. But the third time was the charm. Sims Brown was encouraged by ISO to apply yet again in June 2022, just as Democratic Sen. Warren sent a heavy-handed letter, signed by nearly 30 U.S. senators and Congressional representatives to payment processors pressuring them to get behind Amalgamated Bank’s “woke” MCC scheme.
In September of 2022, the ISO committee declined to endorse the proposed. But this time, on the very same day the proposed was rebuffed for third time the matter was appealed to Geneva, Switzerland, where ISO is headquartered. This immediate appeal did not follow ISO’s prescribed policy for appealing matters. On that same day, ISO reversed the decision and adopted the code. This very unusual process by ISO raises serious questions about the politicization of ISO standard setting. It is something Congress should investigate.
Suspicious Undefined
“The new code will allow us to fully comply with our duty to report suspicious activity and illegal gun sales to authorities without blocking or impeding legal gun sales,” Sims Brown said at the time.
Suspicious activity is never clearly defined. That could be defined later since Sorkin openly said creating the codes is just “the beginning.”
Gun control advocates see this as the proverbial camel’s nose below the tent. NSSF warned that these heavy-handed backdoor intrusions into the free exercise of Second Amendment rights is alarming. Sims Brown and Amalgamated Bank, through an international standards-setting organization, is opening the door to see who is shopping at gun stores. Right now, they can’t drill down to see if a customer was buying a shotgun and ammunition or sleeping bags and a tent. NSSF is working with Congress, state legislatures and attorneys general to prevent this and protect the industry and those it serves.
The other large payment networks all announced back in September they will implement the code and will soon follow Discovery’s lead when they update their network rules.
Discover is the first credit card company to fall in line with this “woke” banking credit card code scheme. They’re just two percent of the credit card business, but they might want to use their own cards to buy new slogans. The old ones of promising not to sell out their customers no longer apply.
I will be cancelling my Discover card. I don’t need a company to track my purchases and tattle what I spend my money on. I use to use this card for all my purchases and I paid it off every month. They have lost my business for good. More people need to cancel their card and hit them in the pocket book.
No Discover, no AMEX, No Visa, No Mastercard, then who? Discover was my last hope boy was I wrong! I’m totally lost in all of this as to what credit cards are left to apply for and use.
Capital one.
A solution to your predicament would be to purchase a prepaid debit card and use that for the purchases you want to be private.
Someone help me here. When all of the other major cards do the same thing, are you going to cancel all of your cards? How’s that going to work when you need to fly, rent a hotel room, buy something online, etc.? It’s fine to cancel Discover, but is anyone going to really cancel everything when they all fall in line?
Yes…. I did not buy what I don’t have money for. I only use a credit card for the perks. I have a X1 card and can create one-use digital only credit cards for each individual purchase.Ake it, use it, and it ceases to exist. Man, never thought I would hear Americans so eagerly hand their freedom away though it must be comforting to not be responsible….. Kinda like a rape victim making it out to be a good thing cause it isn’t there fault.
Younarenstill getting bent over without a choice. Would it still be no big deal if they tracked your weed purchases, KY jelly and dildo purchases?
Looks like this is another censoring website. I have posted a comment 6 times and it does not show up…..WHY?
People like him won’t realize what they had until it’s gone….starting with God given rights.
Wait until he can’t buy something because he was forced to use digital currency and the NWO does not allow him to buy anything with sugar because sugar is dangerous to one’s health.
use it as much as you can, buy local and American.
So one can not post the words…….C A S H is K I N G
If everyone canceled their Discover at relatively the same time it would make the others slow down and think twice. If a conservative red state put a moratorium on using discover in their state then this “could” cause a shift in ideology. Money talks and ideology walks! The complaint about the right to use a card of your choice has already been breached by the card companies themselves.
Capital One is Not going to use those codes.
PayPal several years ago declined to process a payment I was making to a gun dealer.
I told them it was the last transaction they would have an opportunity to process for me, because I was no longer in need of parental permission. I had two parents at the time and both had achieved emeritus status 40 years previously.
Right now Discover is giving me back 5% on groceries, good through March. As of today my grocery bill is going up.
Using Discover at stores that sell alot more than guns i.e. Academy Sports & Outdoors will inundate their system with non-firearms purchases. Some body has to monitor the receipts and that will take multiple employees. That will hit someone in the pocketbook. I say let’s flood their system today.
They’ll just raise the intereste rate and service fees to cover the additional expense. So, Discover customers will bear the cost of this woke nonsense.
I’ve never used a credit card to make any gun purchase, and never will. Of I need to make a purchase, I’ll use a preloaded debit card, use it once and then discard it.
Simple, Don’t use Discover for your gun purchases, and maybe everything else. If they want to be part of the spy network then hit them in the pocket.
Discover has been my primary card since 1989…I was always pretty proud of that. I started moving over my recurring charges this week when I heard about it. Sad day for me…REALLY sad day for America.
Likewise here…..The woke want to destroy us and themselves
Called and canceled discover card after 34 yrs. Screw m
I will NEVER us discover!!!
I am done with them!
ditto