Posted on 05/05/2005 5:23:49 PM PDT by 45Auto
California Senate Bill 357 was recently introduced upon the prodding of Attorney General Bill Lockyer. The bill would require all handgun ammunition sold in California, including bullets used by those who reload their own brass, to bear a serial number. The serial number will be recorded upon sale to consumers into a registration system managed by the Department of Justice identifying who purchased the ammunition and what serial number they purchased.
The intent of the bill is to be able to identify who purchased the ammunition, not necessarily the criminal who used the ammo in a crime. Those who possess unserialized ammunition after January 1, 2007 will be subject to fines and jail time. The exception of course is law enforcement and other state agencies. Those who obliterate serialized ammunition are subject to one year in prison and fines. The one year prison time is for us law-abiding folks, not for criminals. Because, let's face it, those who murder, commit armed robbery or rape at the point of a gun, could care less about 1 year prison terms. That will get plea-bargained off. It really is designed to keep us, the little people, in line.
If you cast your own bullets for personal use, forget it, you're out of business. Those days are over if this bill becomes law, unless you want to obtain a Federal Firearms License and register with the state of California as a manufacturer of ammunition and pay the fees plus the tax that would be imposed upon you to support your garage hobby. Easier said than done, because the ATF doesn't issue FFLs to those who work out of their home these days and the state has some kind of problem with you running a munitions factory out of your home.
The intent of the bill's author, Senator Dunn, a Democrat of course, is to "better ensure public safety" in his own words. That must mean that a serialized bullet whizzing into your car window on the 91 freeway in L.A. will improve your chances of survival. Or, does it mean that those employed in the profession of crime will now be be deterred in killing rival gang members, shooting a drug dealer who just screwed one of his junkies, or raping at gunpoint? Do you really need the answer, or do you think criminals are as stupid as our government officials?
Well, if you don't get it, there's a reason why criminals use guns with serial numbers filed off the frame. It's highly unlikely they would be stupid enough to use ammunition that is literally imprinted with their name and address on each bullet.
But, these are the people we voted for, and frankly we deserve the government we get. But, in all fairness to the legal whackos we've put into office, this is about big government more than anything else. You see, these people have a knack at creating new laws that create new crimes where none existed before. Low and behold, a year or two later they will bemoan the rise in crimes to their local constituency with the intent of "doing something about it, if you vote for me." Nice gig isn't it? Who has a job these days that allows you to create your own reason for existence? Only lawyers elected to office have this kind of job security.
But, it doesn't end there. Think of all the possibilities when the California Department of Justice forms it's "Department of Munitions, For the Illegal Use Thereof" in order to track violators who dare to modify or sell unserialized ammunition. Think of the City of Los Angeles forming their own local "Department of Munitions" to track ammunition violators selling unserialized ammo in the black market. New job titles will be created like, "Ammunition Investigator I, II and III let alone the management positions. This has all the makings of a brand new "War on Illegal Munitions" with all the millions in expenditures and utter failures our hard-earned tax money can buy, not unlike the wars on poverty, drugs, illiteracy, guns and most recent addition, cigarettes. By golly, this is our government at work. It should give you goose bumps just thinking about it.
But still, doesn't it make sense to serialize ammo? After all, the state has been recording handgun serial numbers of buyers for a couple of decades now. Look at all the "public safety" that's been going on there. Think of the myriad of crimes our millions-upon-millions of tax dollars have solved because of handgun registration in California. Or, has it? Well, the answer to that is the same answer we'll get on this ammo registration boondoggle from the California DOJ five years down the road. They won't be able to attribute a single crime solved as a direct result of ammunition registration, just like they have never publicly acknowledged a single gun crime solved as a direct result of handgun registration. The only thing they'll be able to point to are the illegal ammunition makers they put out of business that, not surprisingly, didn't exist before the law went into effect.
Criminals will not purchase ammunition that records who they are so crimes can be traced back to them. The tracing will go back to us law-abiding that now have to deal with ammunition thefts and become subject of a criminal investigation at great personal expense in defending ourselves. It will go back to "untraceable" sources producing ammo for the black market, and low and behold, to those who remove the serial numbers from bullets, just like they remove the serial number from the frames of handguns.
But, be happy. You'll be pleased that a whole gaggle of people will be gainfully employed in our state and local governments, who are convinced by the importance of their jobs, that tracking and tracing ammunition used in crime to endless dead ends is going to "ensure public safety." And, think of all those who will be learning a new profession once they get out of prison. They will be manufacturing ammo exclusively for the criminal marketplace who will gladly pay two or three times the normal amount just so they also can ply their chosen profession. You see, this can help people too. Think of the children who are being fed because daddy melts lead on the kitchen stove to cast illegal bullets. The state could train these people while in prison for all that matters. It gives them a profession when they get out. That should be a comforting thought.
It should also comfort you in knowing that the criminal bastard that just got out of prison two months earlier, and is getting ready put a 357 magnum bullet into your head, will one day be the subject of discussion at the California DOJ about how crafty criminals are avoiding this new law. If ever a law had stupid written all over it, this is the one.
We have not heard how this will stop criminal activity, and it is a good bet the politicians or Lockyer can't tell you about it in any manner that makes sense. That's because the whole basis of this law, and why it has stupid written all over it, assumes drug dealers, gang members, and criminals will attempt to incriminate themselves by using registered ammo they themselves purchased at Walmart. That doesn't make any sense at all, now does it?
So, why don't we save ourselves a lot of work for a law that can't be enforced, will cost untold millions of our tax money and won't "ensure public safety" as its proponents say it will. This bill does nothing other than to increase crimes by offering criminals another item to market illegally. It sends law enforcement off chasing down criminals who are now in the newly formed illegal ammo trade, and in the end, does not do one thing to end gang shootings or drug addicts from killing their dealers. Most importantly, it doesn't protect the citizens of this state from one street thug, keep one car from getting stolen at gunpoint, stop one intruder from invading your home, or deter one murderer from killing. This is a law that is completely useless in protecting citizens.
In the end, when this bill is distilled to its essence, it is nothing more than a jobs bill for criminals, government workers and lawyers compliments of California taxpayers. We don't need more government workers or lawyers in this state, we're screwed up enough as it is. The Democrats are determined to pass this bill on behalf of Lockyer's next election, so it has at least a 90% probability of ending up on Schwarzenegger's desk.
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Oak Hay... how do you serialize the BBs in a BB gun...
or the BBs in a shotgun shell ???
What??? There's no known way to serialize BBs ???
Solution: Ban BB guns and shotguns !!! ;-))
The practial aspects alone would cause ammo manufacturers to simply not ship ammo to CA.
iirc, there are over a billion .22 bullets made each year in the USA- that's going to need at least a nine or ten digit number.
Merely requiring a bullet factory in, say, Idaho to keep records on serialized ammo would cause them to say no way.
This is the real goal, just like "smart gun" technology- demand technology that cannot work, then ban everything else.
The fools in the Ca legislature don't care that it is impossible.
SO9
Riddle Me This Batman, what is the definition of a BB?
The funniest argument I've heard (and I have fits of laughter every time I think of it is the "...and the cost is only a penny per bullet..."
I have no clue, because I don't shoot regularly, but how many billion bullets are produced each year?
The idiot legislator is willing to force the law abiding to spend millions in the asinine hope of catching the two or three dumbest criminals in the western states who will use marked ammunition that they have bought themselves to commit felonies.
Makes total sense, right?
Right?
(BTW: This "single click" service is provided by NRAMembersCouncils.com for RKBA usage only. Please do not use this service for other legislative purposes.)
How many cartridges are produced? Bullets are essentially spitballs without three other elements involved. Correct me if I am wrong.
LOL
Jeeze, then we can all read the serial number and map back to the purchaser. /major sarcasm
Theses ass-breaths who have never fired a firearm just don't UNDERSTAND!
And... I'm just getting my rant started.... (sorry)
BTTT...
Arent most 22 bullets made of lead. Isnt lead pretty easy to scrape a serial number off of ? This makes as much sense as putting a serial number on a condom so you can sue the manufacturer if it busts.
Bumping your post!
I wouldn't give it two seconds of consideration. California would be the last on my list. That state surely has the dumbest legislators in the entire United States. (And they're in session most of the year. Scary, I tell you.)
I think the pols pushing this are not quite as dumb as they look. Only a complete moron could believe a scheme like this would reduce crime. These guys are immoral, corrupt statists, but I don't think they are complete morons. Their true intent is to ban ammo or at a minimum make it prohibitively expensive.
If this passes into law, I'm gone. I won't risk my job, my security clearance and what little is left of my freedom all due to one forgotten unmarked round of ammo rolling around in the trunk of my car or the dark recesses of my range bag that somehow comes under the scrutiny of the ammo police.
I also think to get this through the legislature initially, it will be watered down a bit, perhaps by excluding reloaders or grandfathering existing stocks of factory ammo. Then they'll get around to closing the "loopholes" later.
Riddle Me This Batman, what is the definition of a BB?
=======
Oak Hay, Riddler... I give up... what is the definition of a BB?
Thus instantly creating...
(1) a lucrative new crime wave in the trade of stolen and counterfeit cartridges, and
(2) a new wave of law abiding (and tax paying) gun owners moving out of the great and golden state.
BTW, I believe I recall reading that Attorney General Lockyer has never actually practiced law.
.
On the flip side, a shotgun is gauged from 410, 28, 16, 20, 12 and 10 gauge. Shell sizes go from 2-3/4" to 3" in length. Then there are the dram powder sizes of powder in these shells. The shot sizes range from 00 aught to 12 (diameter of the "BBs"
aught typically holds 9 .33" diameter "BB's." A Magnum loaded with this round will damn near cut a person in half.
This is a little different from shooting a Daly Red Rider in 1945.
For further information; join the National Rifle Association. Go to NRA shoots. Study, ask folks who are knowledgeable in firearms. Speak with firearms instructors.
This is not rocket-science. And... you will learn, and have fun along the way. SASS is another good organization to join.
There are many of us here that will help you.
Our family has over 18 firearms... pistols, revolvers, shotguns, rifles and black-powder ordnance.
Good luck young person.
Above all, SAFETY. Every weopon is loaded. No finger on the trigger until ready to initiate firing a cartridge (round).
Cheers.
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