California's war on Ammo Buyers

Californians! Stock Up on Ammo While You Still Can!

Starting February 1, 2011, a new California law treats buyers of ammunition like criminals. Sales are outlawed except at your local gun store — which is required to fingerprint you and record your purchases, to be reported to the State. See my my earlier post for some history on this law. Here is a news report.

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Here’s what will happen as the law kicks in. Gun owners will be hurrying to buy ammunition prior to the deadline. In order to get exactly what they want, in the quantities they want, in the time allowed, they will order from out of state. (That’s what I’ve done.) So we’ll see a short-term spike in purchasing…but much of the sales volume will slip away from in-state vendors. Then, after the deadline passes, California retailers will see sales drop precipitously. In the future, gun owners will find a way to make a large out-of-state purchase once a year or so. Maybe we’ll form little ammunition clubs, or take an annual jaunt to Las Vegas. One way or another, a large number of us will obtain ammo while evading the state-mandated persecution. Gun owners are the sort of people that don’t take this sort of abuse sitting down.

When the numbers come in, and it becomes clear that Sacramento has done nothing more than drive its own vendors out of business during a time of extreme hardship when they needed help rather than mistreatment, some of the saner lawmakers will suggest that this idiotic and counterproductive legislation be reversed. It’s possible the bill will be repealed, although I wouldn’t count on it. [...]

Neither would I. Not with the kooks in charge. One of many, many reasons I left California.