A commonly available reloading press for
manufacturing ammunition at home.
Hobbled by the Supreme Court decision in D.C. v. Heller, recognizing that individuals have a constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms, gun control advocates are roaming the land with virtual lightbulbs over their heads. "Ah ha," they say. "You can have your guns, but we'll control your ammunition." Well, they're not the first to think of the idea, and they won't be the first to discover that "banning"' isn't synonymous with "eliminating."
California already has a law requiring firearms to include "microstamping" technology -- basically, firing pins that imprint traceable information on fired cases. The Brady Campaign wants to turn that into a national mandate (PDF). A group called Ammunition Accountability plans to go a step beyond, laser-engraving all bullets with serial numbers at the factory that could then be traced to purchasers in registered transactions. Laws to that effect have been introduced in 18 states, though none have yet passed. And, of course, some folks just want to ban ammunition altogether and convert firearms into decorative wallhangings.
There are, as you might guess, a few problems with these schemes.
Leave aside the cost of redesigning guns with mocrostamping technology and the challenge of replacing the roughly 270 million non-compliant guns already in circulation and in the hands of people not necessarily inclined to cooperate. Let's say you get it done. There is the added problem that few criminals are prone to purchasing their guns and ammunition in legal transactions requiring them to show their identification. Purchasing either a microstamping gun or laser-etched ammunition in a black-market transaction renders the encoded data useless.
Microstamping has the added flaw of being easy to defeat by swapping out the firing pin or by scraping off the stamping elements with a file. An old knife sharpening stone was used to remove the engraving in about one minute in an experiment (PDF) conducted by George G. Krivosta, of New York's Suffolk County Crime Laboratory. Krivosta said the technique could be performed with "no special equipment or knowledge needed."
So if your hypothetical criminal who shops for the tools of his trade at Wal-Mart does knock over liquor stores with a gun registered to his name, he can defeat microstamping with a rough stone.
The information contained in laser-engraved bullets would be harder to evade -- if they were purchased in registered transactions. But criminals can use ammunition that pre-dates the requirement. They can use stolen ammunition or ammunition purchased on the black market. Or they can use handloaded ammunition made in a commonly available press produced by one of several companies.
Which means that any effective ammunition control scheme would have to ban handloading and (as a failed Pennsylvania bill did) the possession of pre-law ammunition. So any ammunition control scheme, to be effective, inevitably edges toward a ban on ammunition.
Which raises the ultimate question: How effective could an ammunition ban be?
That brings us back to my earlier comment: They're not the first to think of the idea, and they won't be the first to discover that "banning"' isn't synonymous with "eliminating."
It's not that an ammunition ban or severe restriction would have no effect -- it would change things. Recreational shooting would be severely curtailed or destroyed entirely. If you effectively ban shooting, people won't shoot where you can hear or see them. They'll keep their guns and ammo cached out of sight. So a harmless pastime would suffer.
But the people who supposedly concern the government -- criminals, terrorists and political opponents of the powers-that-be -- really wouldn't feel a hit at all. Criminals only need a limited supply of ammunition to pursue their chosen vocations, as do terrorists. Those with political motivations are likely to posess stockpiles of ammunition with lifespans measurable in, at least, decades. And all three categories are willing to go outside the law for what they need.
And manufacturing ammunition isn't that hard. Just ask the Israelis about the Ayalon Institute. That's the name of the illicit factory in which Israeli guerrillas manufactured 40,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition per day to feed the submachine guns they made in another facility for their fight against British authorities. Under threat of the death penalty, the facility was built underground, with a functioning laundry overhead to conceal the operation.
Emulating the Ayalon Institute, the clever folks who currently build meth labs and submarines to smuggle cocaine could certainly knock off enough rounds to feed the black market appetite for ammunition. Especially in a country where making ammunition at home is considered a hobby and reloading equipment is already widely available. Illegal manufacture would be simple. That is, assuming enough couldn't be stolen from military and law-enforcement channels to satisfy demand.
And that's assuming a total ban. Tight restrictions would mean that recreational shooters use registered rounds while criminals stick with black-market ammo.
Look, I mentioned meth labs and cocaine smugglers above. Decades after outlawing drugs, we've accomplished little other than driving the drug trade underground and making it violent and corrosive. Prohibitions result not in compliance, but defiance. There's no reason whatsoever to think that controlling ammunition will be more effective than restrictions on other things that rub some set or other of control freaks the wrong way. People will find ways around any ban, especially for those criminal purposes about which the authorities are supposedly most concerned.
If illicit drug deals have turned dangerous and socially disruptive, just wait until the underground trade is in weapons and ammunition.
You might also enjoy these:
- Gun Rights Examiner: What the Brady Campaign means by 'home rule'
- Law Enforcement Examiner: Lawmakers seek new gun legislation: Ammo control laws
- Charlotte Gun Rights Examiner: Rev. Whitley's 'bullet' bill is not just for Durham
- Cleveland Gun Rights Examiner: Anti-gun movement gathering steam
- Old firearms given new life by restrictive New York gun control laws
- Those peaceful Europeans own more guns than you think
- President Obama won't take your guns (even if he wants to)
- Overregulating our way to police abuse
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Comments
Just another government "scheme" to both disarm legal gun-owners and to make criminals out of us while giving the true criminals a "safe workplace - no armed victims".
In Maryland last year a elegate Burns introduced the bill mandating the bullet base and the cartridge be engraved with a unique serial number. Unique to EACH box. It would have added a 5 cent per round tax to pay fro the data base. It had a provision that after a fixed date, ALL EXISTING AMMO IN ANYONE'S POSSESSION MUST BE TURNED INTO THE STATE POLICE. It also would have prevented any self loading.
I called the owner of the patented equipment in Washington State to discuss it. He was a very nice guy but I told him about the provisions above and he said he would see what he could do. A few days later, he called me back to say he contacted Delegate Burns and Burns agreed to remove the 2 provisions. STILL not enough for me. There was still the MAJOR problem of MY rounds getting picked up at the range and being left at a crime scene. It would be like leaving your DNA there. There was NO provision for that problem.
The owner of the patent would have received about 2 cents per round royalty and quite a profit in selling the engraving machines to the manufactures. I left him with a thanks for working with me but I hope to hell the bill fails. Thank God it never got out of committee.
Very good article, JD. People who think of these ideas seem to ignore the Law of Unintended Consequences.
The Ammunition Accountability law mentioned above, would require all ammo not serialized to be turned in within a couple of years. I can see compliance with that.... Ok, I'm lying. No way that's going to happen. If the laws are set that I am made a criminal by them, then I will have to act like a criminal then. I'll sell all my ammo on the black market. Well, maybe not ALL of it.
When is there going to be a REAL discussion about gun crime? As in, just who is it that are committing these crimes?
Great info; I'd never heard of the Ayalon Institute.
The larger point of this is to outlaw folks who have stored some ammo for a rainy day.
For whatever that rainy day may be in the eyes of the holder.
The way they want to do this is to give a window to people that have old ammo to use it up or trun it in. Another thing is and here's a goody. They will make it so people can not trade ammor or resell ammo. Oh yes, if you have ammo and its not in your name I'm sure that will be a big federal crime.
None of this is going to fly and if its pushed into law. I sure wouldn't want to be trying to enforce this one.
btw/Has the NRA said anything on this matter.
We are edging ever closer to the final infringement. We've backed up all we're going to.
There's a line...
I fear you are right.
GunRights, I'm already at that point. No more infringement - the line is sitting right at my toes.
III
In USA TODAY.."FBI: Burgeoning gangs behind up to 80% of U.S. crime." Law abiding citizens rest their case.
If it wasn't for guns we'd all be sending our taxes to England!!
When the second revolution starts, their laws just don't matter anymore!
So for all you uneducated "Give me liberty or give me death". Patrick Henry
Why do you think free speech #1 is followed by Right to bear arms #2 ?
If you take my ammo then my gun is a hammer!! If you make me register and give up my medical records to own a gun, that's infringement.
In California we already go hoops. Some parts of the country have the government out gunned! Guess they are worried about that we might think about TYRANNY.
Oh Oh someone at my door.
tyr•an•ny (t r -n )
n. pl. tyr•an•nies
1. A government in which a single ruler is vested with absolute power.
2. The office, authority, or jurisdiction of an absolute ruler.
3. Absolute power, especially when exercised unjustly or cruelly: "I have sworn . . . eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" Thomas Jefferson.
4.
a. Use of absolute power.
b. A tyrannical act.
5. Extreme harshness or severity; rigor.
TYRANT, government. The chief magistrate of the state, whether legitimate or otherwise, who violates the constitution to act arbitrarily contrary to justice. Toull. tit. prel. n. 32.
2. The term tyrant and usurper, are sometimes used as synonymous, because usurpers are almost always tyrants; usurpation is itself a tyrannical act, but properly speaking, the words usurper and tyrant convey different ideas. A king may become a tyrant, although legitimate, when he acts despotically; while a usurper may cease to be a tyrant by governing according to the dictates of justice.
3. This term is sometimes applied to persons in authority who violate the laws and act arbitrarily towards others. Vide Despotism.
Main Entry:
tyr•an•ny
Pronunciation:
\?tir-?-n?\
Function:
noun
Inflected Form(s):
plural tyr•an•nies
Etymology:
Middle English tyrannie, from Middle French, from Medieval Latin tyrannia, from Latin tyrannus tyrant
Date:
14th century
1: oppressive power <every form of tyranny over the mind of man — Thomas Jefferson> ; especially : oppressive power exerted by government <the tyranny of a police state>2 a: a government in which absolute power is vested in a single ruler ; especially : one characteristic of an ancient Greek city-state b: the office, authority, and administration of a tyrant3: a rigorous condition imposed by some outside agency or force <living under the tyranny of the clock — Dixon Wecter>4: a tyrannical act <workers who had suffered tyrannies>
If it wasn't for guns we'd all be sending our taxes to England!!
When the second revolution starts, their laws just don't matter anymore!
So for all you uneducated "Give me liberty or give me death". Patrick Henry
Why do you think free speech #1 is followed by Right to bear arms #2 ?
If you take my ammo then my gun is a hammer!! If you make me register and give up my medical records to own a gun, that's infringement.
In California we already go hoops. Some parts of the country have the government out gunned! Guess they are worried about that we might think about TYRANNY.
Oh Oh someone at my door.
tyr•an•ny (t r -n )
n. pl. tyr•an•nies
1. A government in which a single ruler is vested with absolute power.
2. The office, authority, or jurisdiction of an absolute ruler.
3. Absolute power, especially when exercised unjustly or cruelly: "I have sworn . . . eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" Thomas Jefferson.
4.
a. Use of absolute power.
b. A tyrannical act.
5. Extreme harshness or severity; rigor.
TYRANT, government. The chief magistrate of the state, whether legitimate or otherwise, who violates the constitution to act arbitrarily contrary to justice. Toull. tit. prel. n. 32.
2. The term tyrant and usurper, are sometimes used as synonymous, because usurpers are almost always tyrants; usurpation is itself a tyrannical act, but properly speaking, the words usurper and tyrant convey different ideas. A king may become a tyrant, although legitimate, when he acts despotically; while a usurper may cease to be a tyrant by governing according to the dictates of justice.
3. This term is sometimes applied to persons in authority who violate the laws and act arbitrarily towards others. Vide Despotism.
Main Entry:
tyr•an•ny
Pronunciation:
\?tir-?-n?\
Function:
noun
Inflected Form(s):
plural tyr•an•nies
Etymology:
Middle English tyrannie, from Middle French, from Medieval Latin tyrannia, from Latin tyrannus tyrant
Date:
14th century
1: oppressive power <every form of tyranny over the mind of man — Thomas Jefferson> ; especially : oppressive power exerted by government <the tyranny of a police state>2 a: a government in which absolute power is vested in a single ruler ; especially : one characteristic of an ancient Greek city-state b: the office, authority, and administration of a tyrant3: a rigorous condition imposed by some outside agency or force <living under the tyranny of the clock — Dixon Wecter>4: a tyrannical act <workers who had suffered tyrannies>
The 2nd ammendment protects our right to bear ARMS. It does not specficy guns. Arms are defined as weapons that can be used for offense or defense. If you ban ammo my gun no longer is a weapon, and that violates the 2nd.
Prohibition comes to mind. Outlaw booze because it is bad, what happened then? Mob run bootlegging and corruption. Oh I almost forgot, they did also repeal the ban once they realized it was useless, some people need to engage their brains before their mouth.
Some of the encoded ammo bills have a mandatory turn in or expenditure date. There are billions of rounds of ammo out there. Does anyone with a functioning brain really think that anyone is going to turn in hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of ammo, just because it's not encoded? I got news for the uniformed, it is not going to happen!
What's to keep a criminal from picking up micro stamped casings from innocent shooters and scattering them at a crime to throw off the investigators. Looks like another case of "identity theft" may start cropping up!
Let us all remember the purpose of government: "...to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men..."
We do not exist to fulfill government's needs; it exists to fulfill ours. If the government must collapse in order to secure our rights, that represents "the system working as designed".
We have a right to bear “arms”, not firearms. Whereas the firearm is a common means, today, for effecting self-defense it is only common-sense that the protections enumerated in the Second Amendment apply to ammunition as well as firearms. The firearm plus the ammunition are necessary to be affectively “armed” i.e. to exercise one’s rights. . Since the right to bear arms is an unalienable right it existed at a time when the arm of choice was the spear, the sword or the bow & arrow. Take the spear for example. The weapon is the projectile. Just because technology has separated the arm into an “arms system” for greater effectiveness it is the “system” that functions; it is the system that is protected under the 2nd Amendment.
Imagine if the right to own a car was not infringed (I’m not talking licensing which is a privilege) but it was a felony to possess a key that could turn the ignition.
I guess we will have to wait until one of these encoding laws are tested in court.
You can always depend on Ayn Rand to have gotten to the core of an issue"
"A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims."
I KNOW that encoding ammo will just cause criminal organizations (street gangs) to take advantage of the situation. HOW???
Some ammo companies will go out of business. They will sell to someone who is fronting for a crime organization. They then run TWO OPERATIONS, one being encoded ammo, the other secretly producing unmarked ammo which is sold on the black market. They will conceal the purchasing of supplies/machinery by running them thru the legit business. They will make so much money that they can easily handle the "expenses/losses" on the books of the legit company.
California already helps crime organizations by letting them be run by inmates (like the former crip leader did for decades- CALIFORNIA LET HIM OUT many times TO MAKE DEALS FOR The gang!!!) AND ALLOWING THEM TO BE CELEBRITIES IN Hollywood (like Snoop dogg). If California cared to stop crime, they SHOULD START IN HOLLYWOOD!!
As much as the phrase "SHALL NOT INFRINGE" is self-explanatory, I believe that all is lost for the once great Republic. The masses-r-asses have been so effectively dumbed-down by the government schools and the totally controlled media, that we can only fend for ourselves; if that is possible!
The side-effects of ammunition control is even more pronounced then people can imagine. More then a decade ago we banned cop killer bullets (the teflon ones). In theory they were supposed to still be available to Police and military. But the cut in potential sales killed all production. When the gun control movement then pushed to ban black talon bullets, the Police had to pull strings to insure enough purchases would be made to keep the producers in production to fill Police demand. And when we declared war on the Taliban and AQ in 2002 the Army found it didn't have enough production capacity at its own facilities to meet the war needs. Thus they supplemented with civilian manufacturers. These manufacturers were in fact nearly decimated in the 90s by Janet Reno changing the FFL requirements, forcing many ammunition makers out of the business. Making a long story short, the Army tied up most independent production causing civilian shooters and Police to go on 6 month waiting lists for their ammunition to arrive. The Police have particularly felt the shortage. And now they want to add this to the mix.
This is why I am building a Flintlock.
Just hit youtube sometime and search for homemade guns. There's video (at least there was last time I looked) showing folks building shotgun shells from empty CO2 cartridges, guns from pipe. If politicians think this would do anything about crime they need to be evicted from their fat government seats ASAP.
Until we have enough numbers to take the government back, to protect rights, not seek power and wealth, these schemes to return to slavery and the dependence it creates will continue.
Tom said "Until we have enough numbers to take the government back"
We are LOSING numbers Tom. Now many more are going over the edge with the promises of other peoples money.
Time for another revolution.
Well, I suppose we can look at the bright side.
Thousands of soon-to-be unemployed machinists and chemists won't be unemployed for long if this crap makes it into law.
Hmmm.... Tax free business manufacturing a high demand product with a well established customer base. No need to worry about permits or any other nanny-statist bureaucratese.
Sweeeeeet.....
If all this law makeing keeps up we will be outlaws. I know shall we dump money on it? yes that's it. "Hey Joe print up some more $100.00!"
Cool...I have an RCBS Rockchucker and assembled 250 rounds for my M1A. The brass was free to me. I picked it up at the National Matches at camp Perry while serving as a member of my USAR unit rifle team. Total cost for expendables was about 45 bucks. Black market estimated price 200 bucks. Sounds almost like the illicit drug or bootleg booze trade don't it?
"banning"' isn't synonymous with "eliminating."
youtube.com/watch?v=qGVAQOUi6ec&feature=related
"banning"' isn't synonymous with "eliminating."
youtube.com/watch?v=qGVAQOUi6ec&feature=related
"banning"' isn't synonymous with "eliminating."
Ammunition makes great currency when a country's economy fails.
Ammunition makes great currency when a country's economy fails.
People, if you are not currently a member of the NRA, you should seriously consider becoming one. Or one of the other organizations, like the Second Amendment Foundation or Gun Owners of America. There is strength in numbers. We need to make our voices heard if we want to preserve our 2nd Amendment rights.
If these ammo bans & lazer engraving come to be then three things will happen. 1) to supply our US Miliary & our allies with small arms ammo will be very expensive & very, very slow which will make us very weak in military strength and 2) it will produce an un-Holy alliance between the honest American gun owners & the Mexican drug lords who are in business to make money so instead of paying say $25 per box of ammo with taxes being paid in the USA the cost of a the same box of ammo will be say $50 with no taxes being collected inside the USA & 3) other negative effects on the USA/ TBB on 02/04/09:
Casting bullets with remelted lead (or bismuth) is a no-brainer, but buying smokeless powder or primers might be a problem if they pass a comprehensive bill that outlaws the sale of them. You could make homemade black powder which would be a somewhat acceptable alternative for smokeless powder, but making primers would be a real trick for most people. Making guncotton is possible too but the grain size will have a huge effect on how fast it burns. Even machining new brass is not out of the realm of possibility for many people, but primers will be key.
Banning or prohibiting ammo would only make criminals out of many good people who only want to hunt and be able protect their families. Prohibition was a miserable failure for Alcohol, funny that history must repeat itself...
All anti-gun/ammo people would think otherwise if they got harmed personally. It really puzzles me how someone could be anti anything without a personal experience of some kind. I bet if their house alarm went off and they were all alone with just a butter knife they would think totally different!!!!!! All political!
I have been watching the events of gun control and now ammo control for many yrs now. But what has been happening recently in the last few yrs. scares me allot. My father reminded me a few days ago of things i had studied before in the past. Like for instance.. the first 3 steps of communist control (not being in any specific order) are Gov. control of the banks ( the bailouts took care of that), all communications ( thank you pres. bush for your contribution ), and disarming the people so they dont have the ability to stage a uprising and stand up for them selves and protecet there rights and privlages. im not saying that the current officials in office are trying to make us a communist country but i do think its interesting that they are using there same forms of control. don't get me started on the fact that most of the gun laws in place now have been based on the same laws the nazi's used to take away the rights of the people when hittler tried to take over the world. they are almost word for word the same. no i am not a conspirasy nut i just find the similarities very scary.
All said lets remmeber that if you take a loaded firearm chamber a round place it on safety, put it on a table and walk away. it will never discharge any of the rounds inside. it can sit there for the rest of eternity and never do any harm to anyone or anything. not without the human element. in my opinion the only true weapon of mass destruction (for lack of a better term) is the human brain. and i only say this because with out us no weapon in the world can work and non can be built.
Well the way i look at the subject this is just one step closer to trying to ban any type of firearm they will start by taking one thing then next thing you know it will be some bullshit tax on how many firearms you can own I don't know about the rest of Americans like me but i like my scond amendment rights. The next thing we know obamma will be taking our firearms. I was told my my pap that in government one thing leads to another, lets stop this bullshit here and keep our rights how they were intended to be!
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