So now the banks are trying to pee in the soup as well:
Banks and credit card companies held informal discussions about identifying transactions involving firearms.
Although the discussions resulted in nothing tangible — and ideas may never come to fruition — ideas tossed would help companies monitor gun purchases, which includes information on buyers, from retailers.
Financial companies explored the concept of creating a new credit-card code for firearm dealers, similar to similar to how restaurants or department stores identify their transactions, the newspaper reported. Another idea would require retailers to share info about specific firearm products purchases.
Simple solution (which I’m going to implement for myself with immediate effect): pay cash for all gun purchases from now on. This does two things: it stops the possibility of these tools learning about your gun purchases, and it helps the FFL because he doesn’t have to pay the banks the card transaction fee.
I know the problems associated with this: guns are expensive, it takes time to save up the moolah, etc. It’s a small price [sic] to pay.
Here’s what I’m saving up for at the moment, a S&W Mod 66 in .357 Mag with a 4″ barrel:
Actually, instead of the Model 66 I’d really rather get a Model 65, like my old one:
…but of course, S&W in their infinite wisdom [stop laughing] has decided not to restart production of the 65 as they did with the 66.
So while I’m saving for the 66, I’ll also be on the lookout for a decent secondhand 65 — which purchase would never be traceable, whether by the Gummint or the bastard moneylenders. It’s called a win-win situation.
When’s the next DFW-area gun show?
Private transactions, no yellow paper.
I have never regretted purchasing my Model 19 or Model 65 (NO!, you can’t have it!) Both are well made, neither has ever given me a moments concern. And wheel guns don’t jam.
But my question is: if it violates the Constitution for the Feds to keep track of who buys what gun, how do these pillars of financial social consciousness think they can get away with doing it?
Cash transactions with known merchants for proven merchandise. No paperwork, no trail, no grief from anyone.
There’s no law against banks keeping records of our gun purchases AFAIK. But yeah, cash always works.
“But my question is: if it violates the Constitution for the Feds to keep track of who buys what gun, how do these pillars of financial social consciousness think they can get away with doing it?”
Because they are supposedly “private businesses”, to whom the Constitution does not apply.
Fascism: the form of socialism in which a thin veneer of private ownership conceals the fact that the government is actually controlling the business via regulation and cronyism.
What SDN said.
For a number of years it has been my experience buying guns from owner/operated stores that having cash will usually earn about a 10% discount or more off of their best price. Show them the money, be polite about it, don’t be a jerk, just let the seller know what your, best and final offer is.
Even the big stores like Cabela’s take cash and I don’t give them all sorts of information like personal phone numbers, address’s and stuff. With a CHL in Texas all we do is fill in the federal form and then cash and carry and remember don’t buy anything from DICKS.
If it’s not possible to pay cash with what you have on hand, here’s something that could work:
1) Get a cash advance from one card.
2) Use that cash for the purchase.
3) As cash advances are usually charged higher interest rates, use another card to pay off the first.
4) Pay off the balance on the second card as usual.
I’ve never used one card to pay off another so there might be more to this but, as far as I know, it should be this straightforward. It does require two cards but, unless something has changed, it should still be relatively easy to obtain two.
WRT a Model 66 purchase, as a die-hard S&W bigot I am firmly of the belief that “there’s no Smith like an old Smith.”
I don’t know if the new M66’s have the wretched “safety lock” on them or not and I don’t ever plan to find out as there are plenty of good used M66’s on the market out there (ditto for all of S&W’s great revolvers.)
For ~$600 or so you should be able to find a near-mint condition M66. If you’re a real collector or snob hold out for a pre-1982 model (66-2 or earlier, I believe) as it will have the counterbored (recessed) chambers. A pinned barrel (top of the frame in front of the cylinder) makes it even more collectible.
It’s interesting to me that S&W apparently still makes the M64 (which is basically the M10 .38 Special in stainless) but not the M65 (same thing but in .357.) Years ago I noted that some security companies still equipped their guards with revolvers and those revolvers were often M64’s converted to fire DA only, I’m assuming for liability and training reasons, but now most of the armed guards I see are packing semi autos, so I don’t know who is buying these new M64’s.
I have been paying cash for a lot of stuff or a long time. Booze, ammo, guns especially.
My parents were peasants from Mitteleuropa. They knew in their bones that big business always sides with big government and big government is always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always (enough ‘always’?) a citizen’s major enemy.
What’s a reasonable price for a 65? One just came up locally on Armslist. 3″ barrel. Bobbed hammer, which I’m not sure I prefer, as I wouldn’t be carrying it.