Gun control news for Thursday includes Visa (NYSE:V) not blocking the use of its payment cards for firearm purchases.
That bit of gun control news comes directly from Via Chairman and CEO Alfred Kelly. He claims that it isn’t the company’s duty to tell people what they can and cannot purchase. He went on to say that it would be a “very slippery slope” for the company.
According to Kelly, Visa is interested in fair commerce that respects the laws of the land. As such, it won’t limit what holders of its cards buy, so long as it is legal. He provides a comparison by saying Visa shouldn’t limit the size of soft drink a person buys or acquisitions of legal recreational drugs.
While the recent gun control news may make some think Kelly is in favor of firearms, this doesn’t appear to be the case. Instead, he simply believes that it is up to legislators to handle the matter. He calls for them to pass common sense gun control laws and other restrictions on firearms, reports CNBC.
The idea of pressuring payment companies to ban gun sales has been tossed around before, but it doesn’t stand much of a chance. This is due to how those companies handle payments. They don’t see the individual items that customers are purchasing, rather just where they are buying them from. This means that if someone bought a gun at Walmart (NYSE:WMT), for example, it wouldn’t show up as a firearm purchase, MarketWatch notes.
V stock was up 2% as of noon Thursday.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
