Should The Federal Government Have Ammunition Sales Restrictions And Control?

On July 30th, U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and U.S. Rep. Carolyn
McCarthy (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation that would impose sweeping
new--and not so new--restrictions on ammunition sales.

The bills,
S. 3458 and H.R. 6241, are known as the “Stop Online Ammunition Sales
Act.” The bill itself has four elements:
(1) A federal licensing
requirement for ammunition sellers.
(2) Record keeping on all ammunition
sales.
(3) Reporting of all sales of more than 1,000 rounds of
ammunition to anyone without a federal firearms license within five
consecutive business days.
(4) A photo identification requirement
for all non-licensees buying ammunition, “effectively banning the online
or mail order purchase of ammo by REGULAR CIVILIANS.”

The two
lawmakers’ contempt for “regular civilians” is nothing new, and neither
are the first two of the requirements they propose. Starting in 1968,
ammunition dealers had to have licenses from the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms, and also had to keep records of purchasers. The
record keeping requirement on .22 caliber rim fire ammunition was so
burdensome that it was repealed in 1982. Congress did away with the
remaining licensing and record keeping provisions as part of the
"Firearms Owners’ Protection Act of 1986" after the BATF itself said the
restrictions had “no substantial law enforcement value.”