On Thursday, November 2nd, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Robert Garcia (D-CA) introduced their newest gun control measure in Congress to further restrict your rights, but this time it is the ammunition they are after. The bill dubbed the AMMO Act, will federalize a version of existing state law here in California that restricts ammunition sales by requiring a criminal background check, banning out-of-state ammunition orders, requiring vendors to obtain a separate license to sell ammunition, and more. If passed, the AMMO Act will prohibit purchases of more than 1,000 rounds of any caliber within a five-day period, as well as require all vendors to obtain a federal license to sell ammunition, and it will require all vendors to report ammunition sales to the ATF.
In a joint statement on X, Warren and Garcia give their reasonings for their legislation, which parrots the same old lies and fear-mongering the left uses when it talks about guns and gun control.
Gun violence is a national epidemic that requires a national solution, yet there are essentially no federal regulations governing the sales of ammunition. @SenWarren and I are changing that with the AMMO Act. pic.twitter.com/wR3GqiaQi4
— Congressman Robert Garcia (@RepRobertGarcia) November 2, 2023
With their latest move for the gun control agenda, this legislation makes no sense. Besides being another attack on the Second Amendment, this is really just another power and money grab by the federal government. On the surface, it doesn’t seem to be that bad to some people — technically, you can still buy over 1,000 rounds; you just have to wait a week between purchases. But now you have to pay a background check fee, of which they do not specify what amount that fee will be, and now the government gets to keep track of how many times you buy ammunition and what kind of ammunition you are buying. Oh, and they are asking for an additional $150 million to upgrade the NICS, which is the National Instant Check System that is used for gun purchases.
Call this whatever you want to, but this is just another pathetic attempt at infringing on your basic human right to self-defense. In Garcia’s press release, the laughable attempt to justify this dumpster fire of legislation is on full display, and we will break that down for you here.
The bottom line is no individual should be buying bulk amounts of ammunition without a federal background check from places like gas stations, pharmacies, and convenience stores…
I hate to break it to the Congressman — ok, maybe I don’t — gas stations or pharmacies aren’t offloading tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition from their stores. In fact, I can guarantee you that no pharmacy whatsoever is selling ammunition at all. Maybe, and I mean maybe, a gas station here or there might be selling some ammo, but they’re not moving pallets or barrels of ammunition every day or year. Furthermore, why should I, or anyone else for that matter, be prevented from purchasing bulk amounts of ammunition without a background check? I personally go through several thousand rounds of ammunition every year. There were times when I bought three to four thousand rounds of ammunition in a month because I was training so much.
Millions of Americans are buying thousands of rounds of ammunition at a time, every single day in this country. They are buying it because they want to train or take multi-day classes that require at least 1,000 rounds per gun that you take and use. Others are professional shooters who participate in competitions all over the country and the world. Some of these men and women buy 10,000 rounds of ammunition at once, and that will last them maybe a few months. And some people, like myself, want to maintain a stockpile of ammunition to have just in case.
It defies common sense that individuals can amass a huge amount of munitions with more ease than they can stock up on medication for cold and flu season.
Then you got this gem, where he laughably tries to compare bulk ammunition sales to buying cold meds in bulk for the cold and flu season. Nobody is buying thousands of cold and flu meds for a season. The only people that are doing that are the people that are making meth, not somebody who is trying to stock up on a case of Tylenol for Cold and Flu because they are getting ready for the next five years of cold and flu season. Cold and flu medications aren’t the crux of an argument regarding constitutional rights either. They are mentioning it as a dog whistle for an apples-to-concrete comparison; they just don’t add up.
The press release wraps up with a brief summary of what the bill does, and they use the ever-famous evil .50 caliber ammunition that can be used as an anti-aircraft gun. For all you beginners out there, the .50 caliber round costs between $4 and $9 PER ROUND. If you were using a .50-caliber rifle for competition, you could be looking at spending over $1,000 for just 100 rounds. Furthermore, a .50 caliber rifle has been used in the commission of a crime less than 10 times in the past 40 years. Yet, the hoplophobic politicians have an insatiable appetite for banning or restricting them.
As I, along with my RedState colleagues, have written about Second Amendment issues at length. There is no limit to the length that the left will go to in order to strip away our rights. You can find some of them here:
Weapons of War: What They Are and Why We Need Them
Gun Control: Who Gets the Blame for Taking Away Your Rights?
This latest attempt by the left to go after ammunition now is a clear signal that they will never stop going after the Second Amendment until it is gone. The only way to prevent them is to actively support the groups that are taking the fight to local, state, and federal governments with lawsuits. Peaceful noncompliance is also a strategy that is growing in popularity, as well. At the end of the day, ladies and gentlemen, fight, we must, lest we lose everything.
