Pirate's Cove

Yet again, they are simply going to make things much more difficult for law abiding citizens

Bill named after Parkland victim Jaime Guttenberg puts background checks on bullets

Last month, Democrats in the House of Representatives passed a plan to expand background checks on gun purchases.

Now, Parkland parent Fred Guttenberg and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz are offering a new plan to require universal background checks on ammunition purchases. The bill is named after Guttenberg’s daughter Jaime, one of 17 students and staff killed on Valentine’s Day last year at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

“We have a gun violence death rate in this country right now of approximately 40,000 per year. It is not normal,” Guttenberg said. “In the time that we do this press conference, somebody will learn they are a victim of gun violence, somebody will be buried who is a victim of gun violence and somebody will be planning the funeral for a victim of gun violence. I am not OK with that.”

The background checks for ammunition would work the same way as background checks for firearms. Every time someone of legal age attempts to purchase ammunition, the buyer would be subject to a background check, which Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy said would take 30 seconds to one minute to complete.

Will it? Or will it take days? Remember, that same firearms background checks bill expands the time for approval from 3 days up to 14, because the way previous law was written was that if a response wasn’t received in 3 days, the background check was approved. And people usually get charged for a background check. Will they get charged for ammo purchases?

“Even though ammunition is every bit as necessary for the operation of a firearm as the firearm itself, federal law does not require a background check to prevent prohibited purchasers from purchasing ammunition,” Wasserman Schultz said. “Jaime’s Law will close this ammo loophole.”

Good grief, “loophole.”

It’s not clear if a group of Republicans who voted to expand background checks on guns last month, including Miami Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, will support Wasserman Schultz’s proposal. Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott have previously said they don’t support bills to expand background checks.

“I don’t know what the implications are, I have to look at it,” Diaz-Balart said when asked if he supports the bill. “Debbie and I have a million disagreements but I respect her as a legislator, so obviously I’ll look at it.”

If you read the legislation (linked in the first excerpt), it is tough to understand, because it’s adding language in and striking language in other federal statures. One part makes it seem like people will get a pass if they have some sort of purchase permit, another makes it seem as if ammo can be sold if for hunting or recreational shooting without a check, yet another makes it seem OK if ammo is sold by a dealer who knows the person isn’t going to use it for criminal acts without a check. What does it all mean? Who knows. It does specifically state that “nothing in this act or amendments shall be construed to authorize the establishment, directly or indirectly, of a national firearms or ammunition registry.”

But, there is a section that seems to give the Attorney General wide lattitude to create whatever rules the AG wants to make based on the legislation.

Oh, it also seems to make it possible to purchase ammunition without a backgrounds check when it will be elusively used for ….. fishing (page 6 line 9). Who uses a gun to go fishing? Hey, if this passes (it won’t even make it to the floor of the Senate) we can all claim we’re going fishing when we need ammo!