Californians: Time to Light Up The Phones in Sacramento

CALNRA: AB 362 Amended To Impose Background Check Fees To Buy Ammo
7:55 PM, 5/31/2007 - PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY

AMMO SALES RECORDS (AB 362) was passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee today, next stop is the Assembly Floor. The author, De Leon, is expected to amend the bill to add a "User Fee" to cover the cost of the background check required whenever ammo is purchased.

Presently, it costs $25.00 to cover the background check when one buys a gun. WHAT WILL IT COST YOU TO PURCHASE A BOX OF AMMO?

NRA's state lobbyist Ed Worley requests that every California gun-owner "call every Assembly Member on the planet" and express their outrage at this insane idea. Detailed Assembly Member contact info is available here:
http://calnra.com/legs/asm.shtml

More information and ONE-CLICK service to the Assembly is available here:
http://calnra.com/legs.shtml?year=2007&summary=ab362

Stay on top of other CA-related firearms issues at:
http://calnra.com/legs.shtml

Mike Haas
Electronic Communications Director
NRA Members' Councils of California
http://calnra.com/

What amazes me is the open dishonesty of such a measure. Ammunition without a gun is not a hazard. All firearms transfers in California (with a few very odd exceptions within family, or involving long gun "curios and relics" as defined by federal law) must be done through a licensed dealer or a police department. This has been the case since 1991--long enough that if background check requirements work well, you should expect to see a significant reduction in the pool of guns in criminal hands by now.

So, if background checks work to keep guns away from those who are not allowed guns (convicted felons, most recent violent misdemeanants, those involuntarily hospitalized for mental illness in the last five years, minors), why does California need a background check for ammunition?

And if background checks don't work to keep guns out of the wrong hands, or at least don't work well enough to require background checks for ammo--why should we assume that ammunition background checks will be more effective?

Pure and simple: this is an attempt to make ammunition so expensive that it will discourage the average poor gun owner from owning a gun--the guy who buys a couple of boxes of .22 shells to go shoot his cheap .22 rifle, or the person living in South Central Los Angeles or East Palo Alto who needs a gun for self-defense, and isn't going to be buying a 500 round case. Each time he goes somewhere to practice, he's going to have to buy a box of ammunition--and that background check fee is going to more than double the price of that box of ammo.