Ammo Background Checks Undermine the Second Amendment

A new threat to the Second Amendment is emerging as liberals target ammunition sales as a way to circumvent the constitutional right to own firearms. That threat is a new push by anti-gun activists intent on requiring background checks to buy ammunition.

Democrats are poised to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives in January, and are hoping to replace Pres. Donald Trump in 2020. They stand a reasonable chance of doing so, and that means unreasonable infringements on the Second Amendment are coming at the national level.

While significant threats to the Second Amendment are coming from federal lawmakers, local lawmakers in California and Detroit are demonstrating what lawful gun owners should expect at the national level. Anti-gun activists and politicians in California last year enacted measures requiring background checks for ammunition purchases. The law took effect in January 2018 and requires ammunition sales to go through FFL dealers who must subject buyers to the same background checks they must undergo to buy firearms.

The push for background checks for ammunition purchases is gaining traction. The Wayne County Commission in Michigan recently approved a measure requiring background checks for ammunition purchases. The so-called “Bullet Bill” received unanimous support from the Detroit city lawmakers, who added a mental health background check for people buying ammunition in Wayne County, where Detroit is located.

The new measure adds county taxes to ammunition sales, while also requiring costly background checks, including a mental health background check. The additional money raised is supposed to help victims of gun violence, while also paying for educational programs that teach conflict resolution.

Administrative costs also are part of the increased taxes and background checks in Wayne County, and local politicians say they want the similar legislation enacted nationally by Congress. Doing so would stop unnecessary killings, they claim.

The logic of local lawmakers in Wayne County is more than skewed. Rather than embracing one of the most effective means of self-defense, they promote removing firearms in a city that is notorious for high rates of violent crime and murder. Meanwhile, local residents simply could buy ammunition outside of Wayne County, or learn the joys of self-loading ammunition. Either solution bypasses the county law that could wind up costing local residents their lives by disarming law-abiding residents instead of criminals.

In 2014, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said CCW holders were an important part of combatting crime in one of the nation’s most notoriously dangerous big cities. Craig told a Detroit News reporter he believes “Responsible, good Americans have a right to protect themselves from an immediate threat to their life or to the life of another.”

Craig said Detroit’s rising crime rate and reduced police presence compelled many city residents to obtain CCW permits, and armed residents are an important part of fighting local crime. Local news reports continually provide accounts of CCW holders using their firearms to prevent violent crimes. Yet, those reports go unnoticed in major national media, due to their contrary nature to liberal reporters’, editors’ and publishers’ disdain for firearms and those who embrace the right to bear arms.

Now, a national push to implement background checks for ammunition purchases is underway. Earlier this year, a pair of Democrats sponsored the proposed Ammunition Background Check Act of 2018. The measure’s sponsors claim background checks for ammunition purchases would have stopped Nicolas Cruz from shooting down his former classmates in Broward County, Florida.

They also say it would reduce other acts of gun violence that “devastate” U.S. cities. That claim falls apart when considering most acts of “gun violence” in the United States are suicides, which require only one bullet. Mass shootings are rare, although widely reported when they do occur. The claim also overlooks the many societal factors that drive violent crime in cities like Detroit. Rather than improving the local system to reduce violent crime, liberal lawmakers prefer blaming firearms and their owners.

The idea of the national push for background checks for ammunition purchases is to disarm firearm owners by making it virtually impossible for them to obtain ammunition. Measure sponsors and supporters say they are not interfering with people’s ability to buy firearms. Yet, the intent clearly is to make it impossible to use a firearm for anything other than an expensive paperweight or doorstop.