There’s a discussion going on right now over at Holly’s NorCal Cazadora blog regarding the near-passage of Assembly Bill 962.  You should definitely head on over and read what she’s said, and get involved in the discussion.  Me, I’m not trying to horn in, but just think it’s important to spread this around as much as possible.

In short, this bill is designed to curb handgun violence by requiring anyone purchasing handgun ammo in CA to submit a thumbprint and other identifying data.  It also restricts mail-order handgun ammunition sales (e.g. Cabelas, MidwayUSA) by requiring ammo to be shipped to a dealer so that the appropriate registration process can be performed. 

I’ve been quiet on this one, and maybe by doing so I’ve done all of you readers a serious disservice.  Maybe I should have been up on the rooftops yelling about it, in the same way I did about the lead ban.  I could have done more, perhaps, to mobilize hunters and gun owners to get their voices heard early and often as this thing went through the process. 

I’d beg pardon on the excuse that I honestly never thought the bill would get through the Assembly, much less through the Senate.  But it did, and now, as you know if you ever watched Schoolhouse Rock, it’s on the Governor’s desk to either be signed into law or vetoed and sent back down.

I also tend to stay away from the general fray of the gun rights fight.  There are other sites much more adept at this battle, and individuals who are much more deeply involved at all the levels.  I throw my support their way, both in the way of membership in certain gun rights organizations, and by making my voice heard to my legislators and the Governor.  But I seldom use this blog to echo the messages sent to my by the NSSF, NRA, CRPA, or others.

But after some thought, I felt that maybe I should feel more “duty bound” to step up on the stump and yell about this one, in particular.  The implications of AB962 go so much further than some folks seem to recognize, not to mention the pure senseless nature of the legislation. 

Here are some thoughts that I’ve been thinking… 

It will not reduce crime. 

Face it.  This state already has some fairly draconian firearms laws that are intended to restrict access to guns, yet the gangbangers remain quite well-armed.  Straw-man purchases, theft, and black-market transactions sidestep existing legislation.  Criminals are not deterred by legal barriers… that’s what makes them criminals!  If I were going out to do a drive-by on some rival gang, I’m sure as hell not gonna be worried about whether or not my “assault rifle” is registered with the Attorney General’s office. 

Restricting access to bullets will be even more ineffective, in large part because a murderer simply doesn’t require a huge stockpile of ammo… not even a whole box.  Even given the “spray and pray” shooting that is so often attributed to gang shootings, a single box of ammo goes a long ways. Maybe (doubtfully) the new rules will result in a little less urban plinking practice, but they’re not likely to slow down the crime rate.  It doesn’t even make sense.

Consider that, in 2007, the City of Los Angeles reported somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 homicides for the whole year.  Even if we attribute 75% of those to handguns, and argue that each killing took an average of five bullets, that’s about 75 boxes of handgun ammunition (at 20 rounds per box)… less than eight cases of ammo (10 boxes per case) for the entire year!  This law is somehow supposed to put a dent in that?  That’s like trying to crush a straight pin with a 16-pound sledge hammer! 

Regardless of that, though… how hard will it be under the new law, even with the thumbprint requirement, for a gangbanger to get enough ammo to commit a crime?  If the straw man scenario wasn’t common enough for the purchase of firearms, it’ll be ten times as common for ammo, where the buyer doesn’t even have to pass a background check.  And if they can’t find someone to buy for them (supposing that they’re prohibited in the first place), there’s nothing stopping the individual from hopping in the car and driving across the state lines and buying as much ammo as the car can carry! 

On the other hand, AB962 will only make life harder on those of us who try to abide by the law. 

It will place a further, significant burden on businesses that serve local gun owners and hunters, with additional paperwork and regulatory requirements.  They’ll have to buy another license to sell handgun ammo, and pay for background checks on all of their employees.  At the same time, they’ll be watching as customers choose to drive a couple of hours across state lines to buy ammo rather than submit to monitoring by The State. 

(I also wonder, since the law makes it illegal to sell to a gang member or convicted felon, yet provides no way for the vendor to know if the customer is prohibited… what will this mean to black or Hispanic gun owners when they stop in to buy a box of rounds?)

As a hunter and gun owner, it’s already become pretty difficult to find certain kinds of handgun ammo.  The calibers most commonly used by the military and law enforcement (9mm, .357mag, .38spl, .40S&W, .45acp, etc.) are scarce on the shelves, and without mail order sources, many shooters would have a very hard time indeed finding ammo.  Copper ammo for handguns is even harder to find, and hunters in the condor zone are already scraping the widest reaches of the Internet to find sources of lead-free hunting ammo.  Banning the direct mail-order trade of handgun ammunition will put all of us in a bind. 

And of course, the way around that is to simply drive to Nevada or Arizona and stock up. 

What’s worse is that AB962 extends not only to loaded cartridges, but to reloading components as well!  I mean, honestly, how many gangbangers are out there, bulk-loading for their spray and pray shooting sprees?  Yet I can tell you that, especially when it comes to lead-free, I have no choice but to order my bullets from out of state sources.  The local Big-5 and the mom-n-pop shops just don’t have what I need. 

Of course, you will still be able order through the mail or Internet and have your order shipped to a licensed dealer.  That’s a solution, right?  Except not…  the licensed dealer has got to offset his costs, and it will only make sense that he’s gonna charge you for the service.  So now you’ll pay Cabelas for your order and shipping, then turn around and pay your local guy an additional fee to deliver. 

AB962 is just stupid.  At best, it’s a really, poorly designed, but well-intentioned effort to curb crime.   But at its worst, it’s a backdoor method to drive gun and ammo business out of this state… and the hunters and recreational shooters with it.  Intentional or not, that’s likely to be the result if this bill becomes law.

It’s almost too late, but there’s still time to get a message to Governor Schwarzenegger and asking him to veto this bill.  http://gov.ca.gov/interact#contact

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