Another one of the nation’s most popular credit card companies has decided to track firearms purchases after Visa and other credit card companies already announced their intent to do so.

The push to track gun purchases started with a government pressure campaign led by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Ma.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.) who wrote a letter to credit card companies saying that they need to clamp down on ‘financial support’ of gun violence and domestic terrorism.

Republican lawmakers and activists have expressed fears that the decision by credit card companies to track gun purchases violates Americans privacy rights and could be used as a pretext to violate their second amendment rights.

Some states, such as Florida, have passed or weighed legislation that will penalize credit card companies that track gun purchases, with the Sunshine State passing legislation that would fine companies up to $10,000 per transaction tracked.

Reuters Reports–

Discover Financial Services (DFS.N), a provider of credit cards, told Reuters it will allow its network to track purchases at gun retailers come April, making it the first among its peers to publicly give a date for moving ahead with the initiative, which is aimed at helping authorities probe gun-related crimes.

Discover’s announcement came after the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which decides on the classification of merchant categories used by payment cards, approved in September the launch of a dedicated code for gun retailers.

Discover said it will include the new code in its next policy and product update to merchants and payment partners in April.

“We remain focused on continuing to protect and support lawful purchases on our network while protecting the privacy of cardholders,” Discover said in its statement to Reuters.

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