Even though the Ninth Circuit’s decision to halt enforcement of California’s “1-in-30” gun rationing law is a pretty good sign that the courts are going to treat arbitrary limits on the purchase of arms and ammunition with skepticism (if not outright hostility), one gun control group appears to be hinting at their support for rationing ammo purchases in the future.
Giffords has released an “analysis” of American Rounds’ new automated ammunition vending machines bemoaning the “unlimited ammo” that customers can receive. So what limits does the gun control group believe should be in place? Twenty rounds a day? A week? A box of ammo each month?
The anti-gun group never got around to disclosing how many rounds they think gun owners should be able to purchase at one time. Instead, their “analysis” ping-pongs between criticizing non-existent “loopholes” in federal law and the vending machines themselves.
This type of easy access to ammunition raises significant concerns. Even though ammunition is what renders firearms truly lethal, it is largely unregulated in comparison to guns themselves.
Of course, federal laws that prohibit someone from purchasing a gun, whether due to age, criminal history, or risk of violence, also prohibit that person from purchasing ammunition. But this safeguard is often circumvented, inadvertently or otherwise. That’s because federal law allows retailers to sell ammunition without a license, without running a background check, and without checking a prospective buyer’s identification. This loophole makes it all too easy for dangerous individuals to illegally acquire ammunition.
… Among the biggest dangers posed by isolated vending machines with no human supervision is that they facilitate the straw purchasing of ammunition. When a straw purchase occurs, someone who’s ineligible to purchase ammunition enlists another person to buy the ammunition for them. These automatic ammunition dispensers make straw purchasing incredibly easy—while a human retailer can notice a straw purchase taking place, an automated system will dispense ammunition as soon as an ID scan is completed, even if that ammunition is immediately handed off to the true, unlawful recipient.
Similarly, an automated machine cannot identify when a buyer may be experiencing a mental health emergency or similar crisis, or whether a buyer is intoxicated—situations that would cause a responsible human retailer to decline to perform a sale. This means that individuals in crisis will more easily be able to acquire the ammunition they need to perform acts of gun violence—either upon themselves or others—that would otherwise be easily preventable.
The same could be said with buying ammunition online. At the very least, it’s clear that Giffords would like to see federal law changed to require background checks on all ammunition purchases, even though experiments to that end in California and New York have been plagued with problems. California’s ammunition background checks have led to scores of gun owners being denied the ability to purchase ammo after they were falsely flagged during a background check, while New York’s law has resulted in lengthy delays for many customers.
Ultimately, Giffords’ “analysis” of the ammo vending machines is just an excuse to demand more regulations on lawful gun owners. The group approves of the fact that these vending machines require buyers to show their ID beforehand, which is meant to ensure that only those over the age of 21 can use the machines. The anti-gun group even claims “some features of these vending machines could, in the right circumstances, represent an improvement to industry practices regarding ammunition sales.”
It’s the “right circumstances” that should concern gun owners. It sounds like Giffords wants to see California and New York’s failed experiment adopted by the federal government, with new rules and restrictions for ammo purchasers. Though the group doesn’t explicitly call for placing limits on the amount of ammunition you and I can buy the next time we visit a gun shop, the fact that they’re complaining about “unlimited” ammunition purchases is telling, and a sign of what may be in store if Democrats take control of Congress and the White House in November.
