The pension funds and gun control advocates argue that creating a merchant category code for standalone firearm and ammunition stores could aid in the battle against gun violence.

Orlando shooter spent $26K on guns, ammo, at 1 retailer Lander is a trustee of the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, Teachers’ Retirement System and Board of Education Retirement System - which together own 667,200 shares in American Express valued at approximately $92.49 million 1.1 million shares in MasterCard valued at approximately $347.59 million and 1.85 million shares in Visa valued at approximately $363.86 million. The time has come for them to do so,” Lander said recently, before Visa and others had adopted the move. “Unfortunately, the credit card companies have failed to support this simple, practical, potentially lifesaving tool. New York City officials and pension funds had pressured the ISO and banks to adopt this code. Gun control advocates had gained significant wins on this front in recent weeks. Visa acts as a middleman between merchants and banks, and it will be up to banks to decide whether they will allow sales at gun stores to happen on their issued cards. Visa’s adoption is significant as the largest payment network, and with Mastercard and AmeEx, will likely put pressure on the banks as the card issuers to adopt the standard as well. Special codes were already in place for other purchases, like coffee shops and clothing stores “Following ISO’s decision to establish a new merchant category code, Visa will proceed with next steps, while ensuring we protect all legal commerce on the Visa network in accordance with our long-standing rules,” the payment processor said in a statement.

Until Friday, gun store sales were considered “general merchandise.” Visa said it would adopt the International Organization for Standardization’s new merchant code for gun sales, which was announced on Friday. Millions of birds are migrating over Colorado this weekend

Lottery visa photo tool