darkknight
Member
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2006
- Messages
- 224
when will they learn.
Unsuccessful at keeping guns from gang members and criminals, California may target a new frontier in its crime-fighting efforts: ammunition.
Guns don't kill, bullets do, argues Assemblyman Kevin de León, a Los Angeles Democrat who is pushing the idea.
"I think it will lead to fewer deaths," he said of regulating handgun ammunition. "But I don't believe it's an end-all or a panacea."
The freshman legislator said his bill is particularly timely, given the rampage at Virginia Tech that left 33 people dead.
De León has proposed Assembly Bill 362 as a step toward making California the first state to conduct instant background checks on buyers of handgun bullets.
Among its provisions, the bill would require that personal information be collected from buyers of handgun ammunition, that such transactions be conducted face-to-face, not by mail, and that retailers store their handgun ammunition behind counters.
Critics claim that tighter regulation of bullet sales would create more hassles and higher costs for gun enthusiasts, but not necessarily cut crime.
"I don't consider criminals dumb," said Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California. "They figure out ways to get around whatever is thrown at them."
"You'd have a lot of guys going to Nevada and bringing back a ton of bullets," said Wes Lewis of Guns N Stuff in North Highlands.
State law currently requires buyers of handgun ammunition to be 21 or older. But it does little to ensure compliance or to prevent sales to felons or individuals with a history of mental instability who can't own guns legally but might acquire them from friends or on the black market.
"Believe it or not, you can actually walk into a store today and buy a box of cartridges much easier than a can of spray paint," de León told the Assembly Public Safety Committee last week.
Under AB 362, retailers would have to collect and file with the state Department of Justice the names, addresses, birth dates, signatures, thumbprints and driver's licenses or identification numbers of all buyers of handgun ammunition, as well as a description of the bullets purchased.
Personal information would not be required for rifle and shotgun ammunition, nor for .22 caliber rounds, which can be used both in handguns and rifles.
AB 362, effective in July 2008, also would require anyone selling more than one 50-round box of handgun bullets per month be licensed and registered as an ammunition dealer.
The bill states legislative intent to launch a system for conducting instant background checks of handgun-bullet buyers by July 2011. The attorney general would be required to prepare a report on costs and feasibility.
Separate legislation by Assemblyman Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, would require new semiautomatic firearms to be equipped with a system for micro-stamping the make, model and serial number of the weapon on each bullet fired.
The ultimate goal, if both bills are signed into law, is to make it easier for police to link bullets found at crime scenes with a specific handgun, a specific box of ammunition, and a database comprehensive enough to show who bought each.
Costs of launching such a system, or fee increases needed to bankroll it, are not yet known. Proponents say AB 362 conceivably could hike the cost of ammunition by $25 per transaction.
De León's legislation was sparked, in part, by the death of a 9-year-old girl, Charupha Wongwisetsiri, who was struck in her Los Angeles home by a stray bullet from gang gunfire in December.
Handguns were used in more than half of the homicides committed statewide in 2005 -- 1,547 of 2,503 deaths, according to the state Department of Justice.
De León's measure, AB 362, passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee last week on a party-line vote, 5-2, with Democrats supporting it and Republicans opposed.
"This is just a slippery slope that undermines our (constitutional) rights" to bear arms, said Assemblyman Joel Anderson, R-Alpine.
Rather than creating new gun-control laws, California should better enforce ones it has -- including the ban on felons owning firearms, he said.
"This is silly," Anderson said of AB 362.
Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian, R-Stockton, said the bill would needlessly "throw up yet another obstacle for honest mom-and-pop businesses."
Other critics of AB 362 said some of its requirements are impractical and expensive.
By requiring that ammunition be kept behind a store counter, for example, critics say that buyers could not easily compare brands and that sellers would need to have an employee constantly at the ready to retrieve box after box.
"It would take a two-minute transaction out to 10 minutes," said Lewis, of Guns N Stuff.
At Cordova Shooting Center in Rancho Cordova, Derek Sullivan, 20, of San Diego called AB 362 "ridiculous.
"Gun laws are already too strict as it is," he said.
Derek's father, Mike Sullivan, 56, of Granite Bay, said the bill sounds reasonable but could infringe on privacy and lead to more unnecessary bureaucracy.
"I think it's a bad idea," said customer David Breidenbach, 53, of Indianapolis. "It would take too much police time to enforce."
Paredes, of Gun Owners of California, said felons and gang members could sidestep AB 362 simply by having an acquaintance buy bullets for them.
Supporters of AB 362 claim that documenting the names of handgun enthusiasts is nothing new -- gun buyers are already checked.
In Los Angeles, which requires sellers to record the identity of bullet buyers, more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition were bought in April and May 2004 by 52 felons or others who are prohibited from such transactions by state law, according to a Rand Corp. study.
Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, said he supports AB 362 in hopes that it would close such loopholes.
"I'd rather err on the side of caution," he said.
Unsuccessful at keeping guns from gang members and criminals, California may target a new frontier in its crime-fighting efforts: ammunition.
Guns don't kill, bullets do, argues Assemblyman Kevin de León, a Los Angeles Democrat who is pushing the idea.
"I think it will lead to fewer deaths," he said of regulating handgun ammunition. "But I don't believe it's an end-all or a panacea."
The freshman legislator said his bill is particularly timely, given the rampage at Virginia Tech that left 33 people dead.
De León has proposed Assembly Bill 362 as a step toward making California the first state to conduct instant background checks on buyers of handgun bullets.
Among its provisions, the bill would require that personal information be collected from buyers of handgun ammunition, that such transactions be conducted face-to-face, not by mail, and that retailers store their handgun ammunition behind counters.
Critics claim that tighter regulation of bullet sales would create more hassles and higher costs for gun enthusiasts, but not necessarily cut crime.
"I don't consider criminals dumb," said Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California. "They figure out ways to get around whatever is thrown at them."
"You'd have a lot of guys going to Nevada and bringing back a ton of bullets," said Wes Lewis of Guns N Stuff in North Highlands.
State law currently requires buyers of handgun ammunition to be 21 or older. But it does little to ensure compliance or to prevent sales to felons or individuals with a history of mental instability who can't own guns legally but might acquire them from friends or on the black market.
"Believe it or not, you can actually walk into a store today and buy a box of cartridges much easier than a can of spray paint," de León told the Assembly Public Safety Committee last week.
Under AB 362, retailers would have to collect and file with the state Department of Justice the names, addresses, birth dates, signatures, thumbprints and driver's licenses or identification numbers of all buyers of handgun ammunition, as well as a description of the bullets purchased.
Personal information would not be required for rifle and shotgun ammunition, nor for .22 caliber rounds, which can be used both in handguns and rifles.
AB 362, effective in July 2008, also would require anyone selling more than one 50-round box of handgun bullets per month be licensed and registered as an ammunition dealer.
The bill states legislative intent to launch a system for conducting instant background checks of handgun-bullet buyers by July 2011. The attorney general would be required to prepare a report on costs and feasibility.
Separate legislation by Assemblyman Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, would require new semiautomatic firearms to be equipped with a system for micro-stamping the make, model and serial number of the weapon on each bullet fired.
The ultimate goal, if both bills are signed into law, is to make it easier for police to link bullets found at crime scenes with a specific handgun, a specific box of ammunition, and a database comprehensive enough to show who bought each.
Costs of launching such a system, or fee increases needed to bankroll it, are not yet known. Proponents say AB 362 conceivably could hike the cost of ammunition by $25 per transaction.
De León's legislation was sparked, in part, by the death of a 9-year-old girl, Charupha Wongwisetsiri, who was struck in her Los Angeles home by a stray bullet from gang gunfire in December.
Handguns were used in more than half of the homicides committed statewide in 2005 -- 1,547 of 2,503 deaths, according to the state Department of Justice.
De León's measure, AB 362, passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee last week on a party-line vote, 5-2, with Democrats supporting it and Republicans opposed.
"This is just a slippery slope that undermines our (constitutional) rights" to bear arms, said Assemblyman Joel Anderson, R-Alpine.
Rather than creating new gun-control laws, California should better enforce ones it has -- including the ban on felons owning firearms, he said.
"This is silly," Anderson said of AB 362.
Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian, R-Stockton, said the bill would needlessly "throw up yet another obstacle for honest mom-and-pop businesses."
Other critics of AB 362 said some of its requirements are impractical and expensive.
By requiring that ammunition be kept behind a store counter, for example, critics say that buyers could not easily compare brands and that sellers would need to have an employee constantly at the ready to retrieve box after box.
"It would take a two-minute transaction out to 10 minutes," said Lewis, of Guns N Stuff.
At Cordova Shooting Center in Rancho Cordova, Derek Sullivan, 20, of San Diego called AB 362 "ridiculous.
"Gun laws are already too strict as it is," he said.
Derek's father, Mike Sullivan, 56, of Granite Bay, said the bill sounds reasonable but could infringe on privacy and lead to more unnecessary bureaucracy.
"I think it's a bad idea," said customer David Breidenbach, 53, of Indianapolis. "It would take too much police time to enforce."
Paredes, of Gun Owners of California, said felons and gang members could sidestep AB 362 simply by having an acquaintance buy bullets for them.
Supporters of AB 362 claim that documenting the names of handgun enthusiasts is nothing new -- gun buyers are already checked.
In Los Angeles, which requires sellers to record the identity of bullet buyers, more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition were bought in April and May 2004 by 52 felons or others who are prohibited from such transactions by state law, according to a Rand Corp. study.
Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, said he supports AB 362 in hopes that it would close such loopholes.
"I'd rather err on the side of caution," he said.
