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Why is it easier to buy bullets than cold medicine?
The Current - In-Depth Journalism for Coastal Georgia ^ | January 18th, 2023 | Jennifer Mascia

Posted on 02/23/2023 5:07:10 AM PST by shoptalk

Technically speaking, guns don’t kill people — bullets do. Yet we rarely hear about “bullet control.” Ammunition regulation hasn’t been a top priority for gun reformers and lawmakers, and public opinion polls and surveys rarely include questions about it.

But a reader recently asked The Trace: “Why aren’t bullets regulated like pharmaceuticals, with a database and license to purchase that will tip off law enforcement when large quantities are purchased?”

First, a quick fact-check: While the reader’s question presupposes that police are notified if a patient is prescribed a lot of pills in a short time period, that’s not actually the case. Prescriptions for controlled substances, including opioids, are logged in state-run databases that can be accessed by doctors, pharmacists, and law enforcement looking to stem substance misuse. But bulk purchases don’t automatically trigger a police response.

(Excerpt) Read more at thecurrentga.org ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; US: New Jersey
KEYWORDS: secondamendment
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Jennifer Mascia is a news writer at The Trace. She previously covered gun violence at The New York Times.

Her investigative skills stopped well short of informing her readers that the Congresswoman mentioned in the article, Bonnie Watson Coleman (D- NJ), is intimately familiar with firearms abuse and is willing to downplay such abuse when it suits her family's needs.

Watson Coleman's two sons, William Carter-Watson and Jared C. Coleman, pleaded guilty to holding up the Kids "R" Us store at Mercer Mall with a handgun as it was about to close on March 12, 2001.

They were sentenced to seven years in prison and served 5 1⁄2 years. Watson Coleman has acknowledged it in the past and introduced legislation "that bars companies with more than 15 employees to conduct criminal background checks on candidates during the interview process".

She argued for the law, saying, "One of the greatest barriers to a second chance in the state of New Jersey is a barrier to employment”; it was later passed and signed into law.

In 2014, her son William Carter-Watson was hired by the Mercer County Parks Commission as an entry-level laborer. When asked for comment, Brian Hughes, the County Executive, said, "The county has maintained a policy of hiring ex-convicts in search of a second chance".

It's difficult to find details on the interwebs of the Kids "R" Us robbery; at least one article mentioned the use of an assault rifle; another, a hand gun(s).

Example: In March 2000, William Carter-Watson and his stepbrother Jared Coleman robbed a Kid-R-Us in Lawrence Township with automatic weapons, stealing $1,800 and terrifying employees by forcing them to lie face down on the floor, according to an archived Trentonian story.

The congresswoman’s sons pleaded guilty to the charges, serving five and a half years in prison.

1 posted on 02/23/2023 5:07:10 AM PST by shoptalk
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To: shoptalk

Cold medicine is way over-regulated.


2 posted on 02/23/2023 5:09:01 AM PST by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just postill clickbait!)
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To: shoptalk

What part of “ shall not be infringed” does she not understand


3 posted on 02/23/2023 5:11:40 AM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you. )
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To: shoptalk

I guess it’s never entered into this woman’s (hoping I am using the proper pronoun, lol) mind that there are such things as reloading kits and making your own ammunition, as opposed to just buying cartridges or shotshells over the counter.


4 posted on 02/23/2023 5:12:44 AM PST by OttawaFreeper ("The Gardens was founded by men-sportsmen-who fought for their country" Conn Smythe, 1966 )
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To: shoptalk

Buncha gun-ban pablum.


5 posted on 02/23/2023 5:12:58 AM PST by Lazamataz (The firearms I own today, are the firearms I will die with. How I die will be up to them.)
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To: Larry Lucido

Because the Founders wouldn’t have viewed cough syrup as a fundamental right used to keep government under control, and further a universal tool guaranteed to allow people to protect their families and property?


6 posted on 02/23/2023 5:13:36 AM PST by 50sDad (A Liberal prevents me from telling you anything here)
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To: shoptalk

Gee, Jenni, could you please point to the Constitutional Amendment that says “the right of the People to keep and bear cold medicines shall not be infringed”?


7 posted on 02/23/2023 5:14:06 AM PST by Yo-Yo (Is the /Sarc tag really necessary? Pray for President Biden: Psalm 109:8)
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To: shoptalk

Cause people don’t make crystal meth with bullets?


8 posted on 02/23/2023 5:15:06 AM PST by Mom MD ( )
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To: shoptalk

Why? Because one can’t make meth with bullets.


9 posted on 02/23/2023 5:15:56 AM PST by Brasky (You miss every shot you never take.)
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To: Larry Lucido

Back in the late 1990s...I had been back to the US (stationed for 4 years in Europe) and bought this cough medication at Wal-Mart. Fantastic stuff...over the counter. Around 18 months later, I come back on a 2nd trip. I walk in....here’s the stuff, with a restriction. The clerks want to see my state driver’s license. I do end up buying the stuff.

Two more years pass and I’m back again...figuring I’d pick up two or three bottles of the stuff. It’s not longer marketed...now requires a prescription from a doctor.


10 posted on 02/23/2023 5:18:03 AM PST by pepsionice
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To: Vaquero

From the article:

U.S. Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, who has tried for seven years to get a federal ammo regulation bill passed, told The Trace: “The result of decades of marketing and lobbying by firearms manufacturers and their political allies in government created a tinderbox. The last 30 years or so we’ve been experiencing the consequences of those decisions.”

Another bill, the Stop Online Ammunition Sales Act, would require ammunition sellers to be licensed, ban online sales, and require dealers to report sales of more than 1,000 bullets to the same person in a five-day period to state law enforcement. Its sponsor, Watson Coleman, the New Jersey congresswoman, first introduced the legislation after taking office in 2015.

“It was an outgrowth of my frustration with the mass killings made possible through the stocking of large amounts of ammunition that were available to consumers without any accountability,” she told The Trace. “I also believed it placed accountability on those who sell ammunition.”

Watson Coleman says she doesn’t know why bullet control isn’t a bigger part of the gun reform agenda. “I believe weapons of war like the AR-15 don’t belong in the hands of everyday citizens, but sadly the conversation often ends there. Tackling the epidemic of gun violence and mass shootings will require a more comprehensive approach.”


11 posted on 02/23/2023 5:18:22 AM PST by shoptalk (Defend principles, not personalities. Personalities will always break your heart. )
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To: shoptalk

Obviously a very low IQ fool.


12 posted on 02/23/2023 5:18:28 AM PST by Highest Authority (DemonRats are pure EVIL)
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To: shoptalk

Today’s journalism, create strawmen, call it reporting, tear down strawman.

I pity them, when their eyes are opened to the level of malicious ignorance and lies they propagated the turmoil within, as they realize their eternal fate, will be beyond measure


13 posted on 02/23/2023 5:22:01 AM PST by Skwor
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To: shoptalk

“Why is it easier to buy bullets than cold medicine?z”

because there’s no 2nd Amendment Constitutional protection for cold medicine?


14 posted on 02/23/2023 5:22:18 AM PST by catnipman (In a post-covid world, ALL "science" is now political science: stolen elections have consequences)
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To: shoptalk

It shouldn’t be hard to buy cold medicine. Ask the Feddies why it is. The Government is trying to control everything. Personlly, I’ve never had any problems buying cold medicine. The author might want to try Walmart.


15 posted on 02/23/2023 5:22:43 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer (Remember what FJB Brandon said, "...more than half of the women in my administration are women.")
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To: Lazamataz

If I’m sneezing, I can’t shoot straight. So I need mooore ammo.


16 posted on 02/23/2023 5:23:21 AM PST by Track9 (You are far too inquisitive not to be seduced…)
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To: 50sDad
Because the Founders wouldn’t have viewed cough syrup as a fundamental right used to keep government under control, and further a universal tool guaranteed to allow people to protect their families and property?

Brilliantly played.

17 posted on 02/23/2023 5:25:19 AM PST by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: shoptalk

My bullets, my guns, my reciprocating saw, my truck, my baseball bat, my pocket knife, my pickaxe, a sharp pointy stick in the backyard, my steak knives, my favorite drill (Mr, DeWalt), my propane torch, my ex-wife - these are all dangerous things. But somehow without infringing on my God given freedom, I’ve somehow managed to live safely.

If you really want to mitigate the CRIME problem, find and PUNISH criminals. If that leads to observations about demographics or anything else troubling to a person incapable of accepting reality - your weaknes is not your strength.

Let’s stop the bull shizzit. Help people that need help becoming productive and contributing. Build prisons for those who prefer crime.


18 posted on 02/23/2023 5:25:39 AM PST by Made In The USA (Ellen Ate Dynamite Good By Ellen)
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To: Highest Authority

Don’t think they’re fools. More like propagandists for the unwashed masses to set up a series of deadly events than giving a solution to the related problem. Traitors? yes…..Idiots? Some are many are not.


19 posted on 02/23/2023 5:25:45 AM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you. )
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To: shoptalk

The left doesn’t plan to withhold cold medicine from honest, non-violent people while allowing it to stream through the borders and into the hands of violent criminals.


20 posted on 02/23/2023 5:26:18 AM PST by I want the USA back (News media are pond scum. My pronouns: Haha, heehee, hoho, hoo hoo. )
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