![]() California, New Jersey, and New York also require ammunition sellers to maintain sales records. California, Massachusetts, New York, Washington State, and Washington, D.C., require a license to sell bullets, while New Jersey requires anyone selling bullets to have a permit to purchase or carry a handgun. Seven states regulate ammunition sellers. (A 2022 law requires ammunition background checks to finally commence in September.) A Rhode Island statute requires bullet buyers to get a handgun safety certificate or complete a hunter education course. New York’s ammunition background check law was enacted in 2013, but the program was suspended because of technological and bureaucratic hurdles. California and New York require background checks on bullet sales, but so far only California has implemented them. Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C., require people to obtain firearm purchasing permits in order to buy bullets. ![]() Only a few have, according to Giffords Law Center, the legal arm of the gun reform group. State lawsĪbsent federal regulation, it’s up to states to regulate bullets. The Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act of 1986 bans the manufacture, importation, and civilian sale of bullets of a certain size and composition that may be used in a handgun and are capable of penetrating protective vests worn by police. One type of ammunition that is heavily regulated under federal law is armor-piercing rounds. “I just don’t think they currently have the ability to make a system to run 150, 250 million background checks on an annual basis,” Lindley said. Also, vetting every ammo buyer would overwhelm the system, as bullets are expendable and purchased far more often than guns. The original Brady background check system just wasn’t built for that, partly as a result of political compromise, said Steve Lindley, a program manager at the gun reform group Brady and a former chief of the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Firearms. It seems like a strange omission: If guns and ammunition carry the same criminal penalties, why don’t we run background checks for both? The 17-year-old perpetrator of a 2018 rampage at Santa Fe High School in Texas was able to buy bullets from the online ammunition marketplace without being asked for ID. While federal law bans the sale or transfer of ammunition to anyone under the age of 18, the law doesn’t require sellers to verify a buyer’s age, either online or in person. And there are no regulations requiring ammunition sellers to maintain sales records, obtain licenses, or report high-volume sales to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Sales are exempt from the federal background check system. If a person is prohibited from owning guns, under federal law they’re also prohibited from owning bullets.īut there are effectively no processes in place to identify prohibited individuals before they purchase ammunition. Federal law is next to nonexistent, and few states fill the gap. In much of the country, you can walk into a store and buy a box of ammunition, no questions asked. In fact, in most of the country it’s harder to buy Sudafed than it is to buy ammunition. The reader is correct that in all but a handful of states, you don’t need a license to purchase bullets in the same way that patients need prescriptions for controlled substances or to show ID when buying regulated medications. But bulk purchases don’t automatically trigger a police response. Prescriptions for controlled substances, including opioids, are logged in state-run databases that can be accessed by doctors, pharmacists, and law enforcement looking to stem substance misuse. Yet we rarely hear about “bullet control.” Ammunition regulation hasn’t been a top priority for gun reformers and lawmakers, and public opinion polls and surveys rarely include questions about it.īut a reader recently asked us: “Why aren’t bullets regulated like pharmaceuticals, with a database and license to purchase that will tip off law enforcement when large quantities are purchased?”įirst, a quick fact-check: While the reader’s question presupposes that police are notified if a patient is prescribed a lot of pills in a short time period, that’s not actually the case. Technically speaking, guns don’t kill people - bullets do.
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