Sold from vending machines in Pennsylvania, feed depots in Nevada, pharmacies in Georgia and jewelry stores in Texas, ammunition is in many states easier to buy than cold medicine. But in California, which already enforces some of the nation’s most restrictive gun laws, there is a movement underway against the unfettered sale of bullets.
So first up, yes, in most of the United States it is easier to buy a box of ammo than a box of Nasal Decongestant. In Massachusetts, where I need to show my permit when I score a box of ammo, it’s really the same, technically there’s some sort of database that records how often I get a stuffy nose, so maybe it’s still harder here.
What isn’t mentioned is that is that restriction on pseudoephedrine done us any good? Nope, its a pain in the ass (especially when you have a splitting sinus headache and the 24 Hour Drug store is open, but the pharmacy counter is closed!) and has had ZERO benefit to society. Actually it can be argued that it actually made things worse, because people were cooking the medicine into Meth, not that they can’t bulk buy their ingredients, the small home-labs shut down….but people still wanted Meth, so now the Mexican Cartels aren’t competing with American Drug Dealers, so they just buy the raw chemicals by the truckload and cook it up in FACTORIES.
End result, more Meth, and more crime! Yayyy!!!
But back to the stupid ammo law.
Gun control advocates here have pushed to limit internet sales, ban large-capacity magazines, require sellers to have licenses, raise taxes on bullets, and mandate serial numbers or other traceable markings on ammunition so that the police can more easily track them.
Such regulations, several of which have been enacted and take effect this year and next, are inspired by the view that the best way to limit gun violence is to approach it as a “bullet control” problem. As Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Democrat from New York, told the Senate 25 years ago, when he introduced legislation that would have imposed a 10,000-percent tax on hollow-tip ammunition, “guns don’t kill people; bullets do.”
All crap that is PROVEN not to work, but the point I want to make also includes this.
Beginning next year, ammunition dealers across the state will be required to maintain logs of all sales — one of many steps California has taken to limit access to bullets. The efforts come as federal lawmakers fail to break the stalemate that for decades has blocked any new major gun control measures, despite a nationwide groundswell from students pushing for more restrictions in the wake of multiple massacres on high school and college campuses.
Under federal law, those who are not legally allowed to buy firearms are also forbidden from purchasing bullets, but there is no effective system in place for enforcing that rule. There are minimum ages for buying ammunition, but many sellers do not check identification. So cities and states are leading the way instead, with California at the forefront, said Ari Freilich, a lawyer with the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
So essentially the anti-gunners, having run roughshod over the gun market in their “Progressive” Crime-Sanctuary, and finding that crime is still a major problem in the Gang-Infested streets, so the solution is to restrict AMMO!
Except let’s talk a little about ammo. The other day I hit the range, and it was 90 degrees and humid, and I was SOAKED in sweat by the time I was heading home. Really I just wanted to log a little trigger time and work on improving my skills, this was NOT a pleasure trip. I had fun, but man I was happy to go home. In this trip I used up two 50-round boxes of .22, one 50-round box of .45 ACP, and a few magazines of old carry ammo that had been cycled into a chamber more than I was comfortable with. So it was about 160 rounds, and I wasn’t shooting fast, I was working on my sight picture, my grip and stance, and my trigger pull. I was also downloading my magazines so I could practice more reloads. Either way, it was about an hour.
I think we all know that 160 rounds is a pretty light day for the average gun nut. I know there are days when I’ve burned more than 1,000 rounds without the aid of full-auto. And then there are the full-auto days….
Now let’s look at the other side of the fence to the criminal world. They have guns, but they’re generally prohibited people long before they get the taste for blood, so they don’t want to draw a lot of attention to their gun collection. They might go to a public range, but honestly there are enough cops that are shooters that do they REALLY want to show up at the range and be unpacking their gun and have a cop recognize their mug shot? Really how often does a criminal fire a gun in practice? For some, like drug dealers or robbers, who just want a gun and really aren’t interested in killing another person, they might NEVER shoot their gun. For a gang enforcer who might be asked to carry out a hit, they might want to know more of how their gun shoots, but maybe that’s just popping a few rounds into the dirt or a dumpster to make sure the gun works.
Really I bet most of the repeat offenders in jail probably haven’t shot more than 50 rounds of ammo, and from my readings, they aren’t terribly concerned with quality of the ammo, they don’t have a preferred hollow point, maybe they would PREFER to get HP ammo, but if all they have is ball, they wouldn’t be as concerned about that as you or I would be.
Also where do criminals get their guns? There was a study conducted on that they mostly get them from friends, family, and criminal associates. So one might assume the person selling, lending, or trading the gun might also have ammo for it. When it comes to theft, couldn’t the robber also cop some ammo boxes? Same with people who legally have guns, but also have an ILLEGAL problem with substance abuse, how often do drug dealers get a gun in trade for drugs? Couldn’t they also request ammo?
At WORST, this law would put a premium on ammo in the underworld, meaning that criminals will seek it out to meet the demand, and the “Demand” isn’t going to be very high.
But it’s going to make us lawful gunnies who actually shoot up ammo, so frequently need to hit the gun shop between range trips….and the added infrastructure will cost money that EVERYBODY pays for….well not the criminals, they don’t pay taxes either!
And the end result will be more of the same on the streets of California! They will never learn because they don’t WANT to learn.
But remember, as far as they’re concerned, inconveniencing or restricting “lawful gunnies” is a feature, not a bug.
I also find the notion behind this, namely — that we have failed to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, so we must keep ammo out of their hands! — to be absurd as well. If we can’t keep criminals from getting their hands on guns after all the infrastructure we have put in place to keep guns out of their hands, what makes them think that putting ammo in that same infrastructure is going to keep ammo out of their hands?!?