WATCH: Rep. Greg Steube Says That A Gun Registry ‘Absolutely Is the Goal’

Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) says he and other Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, if they win a majority in November, “will stop at nothing to ensure that freedom is back in America,” including the right to free speech and the right to keep and bear arms.

Speaking to Fox News Monday night, Steube slammed the “backdoor” effort by gun control activists to establish a gun registry — by forcing credit card companies to use a new Merchant Category Code for credit-card purchases at the country’s 9,000 federally licensed gun and ammunition dealers.

“That absolutely is the goal,” Steube said:

“They know they can’t pass through Congress, with 60 votes in the Senate, a gun registration nationally for every American and for every gun that they own. So they do it in a backdoor way. They get these woke corporations to agree with what they want to do, and they do it inadvertently (surreptitiously).

“And then when the FBI or DOJ wants those lists of what Americans own, what firearms, they’ll just do a subpoena to Visa or MasterCard or American Express…And they get the information that they wanted to, because these corporations are at the will of progressives and this administration, and it’s got to be stopped. “

Steube noted that current federal law prohibits a universal, national gun registry.

He also warned that leftists are aiming not just at the Second Amendment, but at the First Amendment as well.

“I mean, just look at the bills that they’ve passed through Congress and other First Amendment rights, other constitutional amendments. Look at what California is doing on what doctors can and cannot say about vaccines.

“They just passed a bill recently — I read an article that they’re limiting what doctors can say about the vaccine and covid-19. They are absolutely taking steps to take away your constitutional rights. It starts with the First Amendment then it goes to the Second Amendment.

“And they’re going to keep on and keep on doing what they’re doing until law-abiding citizens start standing up and take back our country.”

Steube said if Republicans win back the House in November, Americans can expect an investigation into the pressure placed on credit card companies to better track gun and ammunition purchases.

Steube said he wants to know what kind of pressure the FBI, DOJ and Biden administration exerted on the credit card companies to adopt the new Merchant Category Code.

As CNSNews.com reported earlier, The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearm industry trade association, opposes the creation of special purchasing codes for firearms and ammunition, rather than using the current “sporting goods” MCC.

“The idea is that credit card companies would monitor individual purchases by law-abiding citizens and if they seem to out of the norm, those purchases would be reported to law enforcement for investigation,” NSSF said in a recent posting.

“What it really is, is privatized gun control that runs roughshod over rights and the law. The 1986 Firearm Owners Protection Act forbids the federal government from maintaining a gun registry. Banks are already required to report suspicious activity under the 1970 Banking Secrecy Act and expanded with the Patriot Act.

“This idea, though, would put that into private hands, building a registry one purchase at a time. The basis for suspicious activity would simply be exercising the pre-existing right to keep and bear arms, which is expressly protected by the Constitution.”