According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, “Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp. are refusing to process any credit card transactions between federally licensed firearms retailers, distributors and manufacturers, a move that will severely limit available inventory of firearms and ammunition to military, law enforcement and law-abiding Americans.”
Citi Merchant Services provides all the systems, technology and processing services for consumers to make credit-card purchases from Citi-affiliated merchants. The first company affected by the anti-firearms decision appeared to be CDNN Sports Inc. of Abilene, Texas, an internet retailer of firearms, parts and accessories.
“We were contacted recently by First Data/Citi Merchant Services by a June Rivera-Mantilla stating that we were terminated, and funds were being seized for selling firearms in a non-face-to-face transaction,” said Charlie Crawford, president of CDNN Sports Inc. “Although perfectly legal, we were also informed that no transactions would be processed in the future, even for nonfirearms. I find this very frightening.”
In her letter to Crawford, Rivera-Mantilla noted that violations of the federal Gun Control Act could occur through the internet sale of a firearm.
Though she did not claim that CDNN Sports had ever committed such a violation, she wrote that the company was being terminated as a customer because, “We at Citi Merchant Service are unable to monitor or track adherence to these Gun Control laws.”
