Swordsmyth
01-07-2019, 06:30 PM
Not happy with the progress being made by banks and credit-card companies in their move to restrict lending to gun manufacturers, Andrew Sorkin published (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/24/business/dealbook/mass-shootings-credit-cards.html) his thinly veiled support for more surveillance of and restrictions on individual gun buyers in the New York Times in late December.
In his piece entitled “How Banks Unwittingly Finance Mass Shootings,” Sorkin made clear his anti-gun worldview in the opening paragraph of the results of his Dealbook Investigation: “Omar Mateen used six credit cards to buy two guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition before he opened fire inside the Pulse nightclub [in June 2016].”
Sorkin rounded up evidence that other “mass shooters” had used credit cards to purchase firearms and accessories and concluded that “Many of the killers built their stockpiles of high-powered weapons with the convenience of credit. No one was watching.”
Now they should, said Sorkin. He took his “evidence” and called on the heads of a number of national banks who, he said, were horrified at what he had found. But they backed away from implementing any sort of tech wizardry that would target individuals buying too many firearms and too much ammunition in too short a period of time:
Financial firms have so far resisted changing the way they deal with the sale of guns.
Banks and credit-card companies say it is not their responsibility to create systems to track gun purchases that would allow them to report suspicious patterns [to law enforcement].
But, according to Sorkin, they should: “If banks chose to use the systems they already have in place, they might decide to monitor such customers, perhaps preventing them from buying multiple guns in a short period of time.”
More at: https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/31121-banks-credit-card-companies-should-prevent-citizens-from-buying-multiple-guns-says-nytimes
In his piece entitled “How Banks Unwittingly Finance Mass Shootings,” Sorkin made clear his anti-gun worldview in the opening paragraph of the results of his Dealbook Investigation: “Omar Mateen used six credit cards to buy two guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition before he opened fire inside the Pulse nightclub [in June 2016].”
Sorkin rounded up evidence that other “mass shooters” had used credit cards to purchase firearms and accessories and concluded that “Many of the killers built their stockpiles of high-powered weapons with the convenience of credit. No one was watching.”
Now they should, said Sorkin. He took his “evidence” and called on the heads of a number of national banks who, he said, were horrified at what he had found. But they backed away from implementing any sort of tech wizardry that would target individuals buying too many firearms and too much ammunition in too short a period of time:
Financial firms have so far resisted changing the way they deal with the sale of guns.
Banks and credit-card companies say it is not their responsibility to create systems to track gun purchases that would allow them to report suspicious patterns [to law enforcement].
But, according to Sorkin, they should: “If banks chose to use the systems they already have in place, they might decide to monitor such customers, perhaps preventing them from buying multiple guns in a short period of time.”
More at: https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/31121-banks-credit-card-companies-should-prevent-citizens-from-buying-multiple-guns-says-nytimes