New York Governor Kathy Hochul last week signed a trio of gun control laws that further cement her administration’s status as one of the most anti-Second Amendment in the nation. Framed as public safety measures, the real thrust of these laws isn’t about stopping crime—it’s about surveillance, intimidation, and political theater aimed squarely at law-abiding gun owners.
At the center of this Orwellian package is a law that mandates credit card companies to begin tracking purchases of firearms and ammunition. Hochul insists this is about giving law enforcement “important data points” to stop potential mass violence. Translation? If you buy a few boxes of ammunition, expect your name to land in some bureaucrat’s database as a “person of interest.”
This is not just regulation—it’s pre-crime profiling.
Governor Hochul calls it “refining how credit card companies track purchases.” What it really is: building a financial surveillance state targeting gun owners. If you use a debit card to buy ammunition in bulk—say, for training, competitive shooting, or even just stocking up—you’re now potentially triggering a digital red flag for state authorities. They’ll know what you bought, where you bought it, and how much you spent.
In what world is that compatible with the Second Amendment?
And that’s just the start. Gun retailers in New York will also be required to adopt a new merchant category code designed to flag them in the banking system. It’s financial discrimination by design—backed by the state.
And it doesn’t stop at tracking. Hochul’s other new law will force gun dealers to hand out government-approved literature warning buyers of the “dangers” of owning a firearm. These warnings include supposed risks like increased suicide, domestic violence, and accidental deaths—all standard anti-gun tropes dressed up in the language of “public health.”
It’s the same fear-peddling playbook the Left uses in every other sphere—inflate the risk, shame the user, and use the state’s power to nudge behavior.
One Assembly Member called it a “smart, data-driven” approach. That’s the sales pitch. But the reality is darker: the state is using financial institutions to do what it can’t openly do through legislation—monitor, deter, and ultimately suppress legal gun ownership.
Governor Hochul is also demanding another $370 million in taxpayer funding to double down on these efforts in the next state budget. That means more programs, more bureaucracy, and more pressure on every New Yorker who dares to exercise their constitutional rights.
