New Cali Ammo Law Reportedly Blocks 62k People Over Technicalities, Only Stops Handful of Criminals
California’s restrictive ammunition law is responsibly for blocking tens of thousands of seemingly law-abiding citizens from buying cartridges, yet it’s only stopped a handful of criminals from purchasing bullets from a store.
A law requiring background checks for all ammunition transactions went into effect in July of this year, and it’s been a total disaster from the start.
Now, we’re finally getting a look at how many criminals the law has prevented from buying bullets, and how many seemingly innocent citizens were denied in the process.
The numbers are being reported by the Sacramento Bee, and they don’t look very promising.
Out of the 345,547 background checks performed on people attempting to buy ammunition, only 101 were flagged as a “prohibited person.”
Of course, there’s no telling how many criminals sourced their ammunition from a friend, a black market connection, or simply through theft.
In addition to the “prohibited” ammunition buyers, there were also a whopping 62,035 people stopped from purchasing ammo because of technical errors. Errors with names and addresses matching the California database appear to be the main problem.
Those who don’t have a gun registered in the state’s system also faced a difficult time purchasing ammo. Many were forced to go through an even longer process that could last for days.
One gun store worker who was interviewed by the Sacramento Bee said that even misplaced spaces in a name can keep a law-abiding citizen from buying rounds.
“If the DMV messed up and your name is De Von and the DMV spelled it Devon, with no space, you’re going to get denied,” Christopher Lapiniski of Last Stand Readiness & Tactical said. “If there is a hyphen in your name that’s misplaced, you’ll be denied.”
Even the DMV’s placement of “Jr.” is causing problems — unless the system has to be manually manipulated by a savvy clerk, the incorrect placement means no ammo.
“There’s far more people being denied access to ammunition, and thus stifling of their 2nd Amendment right, than there are criminals,” Lapiniski said.
For criminals, there are still plenty of options.
Going to another state for ammunition, or simply buying it from someone who is able to legally acquire it in California, means criminals possibly have easier access to cartridges than many law-abiding citizens do.
Restrictive ammo laws are already gutting the state’s hunting industry, and now even harsher requirements mean that anyone interested in arming themselves in California is in for a bumpy ride.
Unfortunately for California residents being used as guinea pigs by those with anti-gun agendas, all this law confirms is that restrictive measures only unfairly hurt those who follow the law.
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