When was it, exactly, that the left became the “blues” and everyone else became the “reds”? I was from that generation that grew up huddling under elementary school desks in “atomic bomb drills” and being told by teachers that Communism was evil, and now folks like me are called “Reds” ?!?!?

A new “blue” scheme currently underway (yes, founder Dave Duffy has checked it out, and assures us it is true) is the already drafted Ammunition Accountability Act. You can read about it here.

Let’s think about that. The technology to make ammunition “accountable,” – cartridge by cartridge, shell by shell, casing by casing, projectile for projectile – is largely vaporware and almost entirely unproven. It will be hugely expensive. Affordable ammunition for practice, competition, hunting and home defense will become a thing of the past.

Notice also the very early expiration date at which all previously owned “old, low-tech” ammo would become illegal to possess. One must ask, what would the law abiding citizen do with it? It could not be sold. Property lawfully purchased and responsibly owned would become contraband: there would be huge ex post facto issues here, and some serious Constitutional issues as well. And that’s before we start looking at vast collective tonnage of “hazardous materials” that some Governmental entity would be responsible for storing or destroying. Did any of the idiots who drafted this stuff even discuss the ramifications with EPA and OSHA?

If, like most rural folks, you’re a gun owner, you’ve found an old box of ammo or maybe just a single cartridge in an unexpected, forgotten place. After a certain date, if this BS becomes law, that would make you a law-breaker. Roughly half of our population – far more than half in rural areas – owns or have owned guns and ammunition, which means that if such laws come to pass, they will unnecessarily criminalize half of our citizenry.

Look this stuff up. Find out if yours is one of the states that might put you in the crosshairs of this insanity. And start writing every elected official (and appointed official, such as chiefs of police who would have to enforce this stupidity) and let them know where you stand.

This drafted legislation reaches a literally mind-boggling level of ignorance and foolishness, and if it goes unchallenged, the “blues” will have a lot of us “singing the blues.”

1 COMMENT

  2. The story behind the story is that this is a process patented to imprint ammunition. To the best of my knowledge, they don’t even have a working model. Since the designers couldn’t sell their invention by traditional means, they decided that legislation to for the sale of this unproven and, as yet, not manufactured technology would be the best way to “force” a market. Their marketing costs are the costs of lobbyists.

    Now that’s some free enterprise for ya.

  3. “Ammunition Accountability is a newly forming group of ammunition coding technology supporters. Our group includes gun crime victims, industry representatives, law enforcement, public officials, public policy experts, and more. We are working together to pass legislation to make ammunition coding technology a reality.

    Ammunition coding technology works by laser etching the back of each bullet with an alpha-numeric serial number. Then when a potential criminal purchases a box of 9mm cartridges, the box of ammunition and the bullets’ coding numbers would be connected to the purchaser in a statewide database. When a bullet is found at a crime scene, the code on the bullet can be read with a simple magnifying glass and then be run through a statewide database to determine who purchased the ammunition and where, providing a valuable investigative lead.” http://ammunitionaccountability.com/

    Is this a “commonsense” gun law that Obama was talking about? Never mind that it’s impractical and riddled with logistical, practical and financial flaws, I resent being labeled a “potential criminal”.

    Like Mas said: “you’ve found an old box of ammo or maybe just a single cartridge in an unexpected, forgotten place. After a certain date, if this BS becomes law, that would make you a law-breaker”.

    I would not be a “potential criminal” if laws like this were not considered. HaHa…“commonsense”, Nice! What’s next Dulling Knives because they cut things?

  4. PS- What is the NRA doing about this?

    This is important and I find it alarming that I first heard of it from this Blog. This needs to be squashed immediately, nationwide, by EVERY gun owner!!! Get on the legislators butts and the NRA for not doing more!!!

  6. The last weapons ban that I read about (last session) actually expanded to semi autos and any military based designs. By reading the list that was posted on the government website, I went thru and pretty much figured out that basically all of my guns fall under this law. Such as… I have an m77 ruger -mauser based-hence illegal. I have several semi autos including a glock 9mm -illegal the 870 yup you guessed it illegal. And now the introduction of the ammunition marking acts around the country. I live in NE (where hornady ammunition is proudly manufactured) and have seen reports stating that if ammunition is to be produced it would take something like 2 weeks to manufacture the ammunition now produced in 1 day.

    My next concern here is would law enforcement, and the military be burdened with this holdup. If so there would be a huge delay and all ammo for private consumption would virtually shrivel and die. Eliminating the possibility of defense, practice, feeding our families, and the only thing that actually relaxes some of us “backwoods, small town thinking weirdos” If they are going to ban guns I wanna see em ban cars, baseball bats, golf clubs, and sticks, First.

  7. Mas,

    Gotta agree that it’s quite irksome to be considered “red.” My definition of a Red State was the USSR or China. Who actually decided on this color scheme?

    But back to the main subject. Legislation based on this technology has gone no where over the past two years, even in liberal “blue” states like California, Illinois, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and my own Pennsylvania (grrrrr). That’s not to say it couldn’t in the future but thankfully for us it doesn’t look promising for ACT. With any luck the company will fold since there are no orders for its questionable wares.

  9. And all the ammo we’re now stockpiling will probably become illegal somewhere no too far down the road–which is the purpose of the legislation, since pretty soon it will be almost impossible to buy ammunition without paying a small fortune to cover the taxes they intend to impose. Just another way to disarm the honest citizen.

  10. I’ve commonly heard that “Green” is the new “Red”, and watch as leftist green agenda and environmental extremism comes more and more into play.

    x,y, or z will be banned because it’s not “Green”. Thought will be banned because it’s not left (green) enough.

  11. Georgia is now among the states that will have this legislative battle on their hands.

    As reported in the January 2009 issue of “Georgia Outdoor News”, the “Right to Bear Arms” article covers this issue.

    State Senator Ronald B Ramsey Sr. (D-Decatur) has prefiled SB12. This bill is a copy of the ammunition accountability act mentioned in this blog.

    Now I have a question. Where is all this so called scientific evidence supporting this so called technology? What is going to happen to the etching on the base of any bullet when it is subjected to the extreme heat off being fired?

    Just more schemes to infringe on God given and Constitutional Rights.

  12. I swing both ways (ha ha now don’t go there). One side of me says that our gun culture is doomed. But then the good angel on my shoulder wispers to me “don’t worry, be happy”. He/she reminds me of what happened at least on the federal level last year. Not a lot of hupla over this but I thought it was really insightful of where the House of Representatives are these days. Remember that amendment to a bill that was introduced by Travis Childers of Mississippi to restore 2A rights to DC? Well he is of all things a DEMOCRAT ! And he got 82 other Democrats to help pass that bill. Final score 266 yea 152 nay. (I sent him a thank you letter btw)

    So while I fully expect crazy ass bills like the AAA to be introduced across the nation, I don’t think there will be a full sweep come end of the day. Yes some states and even the Feds may pass something here and there but it won’t end the ownership of guns. And it if even approaches the level of stupidity that this one does I see people being motivated enough to lobby their representatives to stop it.

    Oh well, it’s the begining of a brand new year and I am trying to be hopeful ! 🙂

  13. If some masked gov. agent comes breaking down my door someday with a file in his hand, eyeballing me as to where the rest of my knives are stashed, I know I won’t be able to keep a strait face….. I wonder what kind of signature it will read if I bury it on end? Does point down make a diff? LOL…. anyways, my wife says criminals are hot, so I guess i’m not at a total loss. always enjoy your work Mas, shooting and writting, thanks.

  14. one more piece of proof that the gov. and the powers that be will not be happy until the entire population is one big herd of sheep totally relient on them for everything. The America that we know, love and faught for has been so deluted that it is no longer reconizable and might be said that it is dead. to be self sufficient self relient leaves us open to be called freaks, exstremists and outlaws. I love my country and have fought for it, It would kill me to have to fight against it

  15. I dare say this is the same group of people that never want speech denied for terrorists and an abortion is a right, straight out of the bill of rights. I say this will all honesty and no malice intended for anyone but this will not stop until the 2nd civil war. With the serious divide between the two groups and the two vastly different countries that each wants to live in I have feared we will tear ourselves apart before someone else has a chance to destroy us.

  16. Last summer, before the elections, Dave Duffy and John Silveria both predicted that something like this would occur. By making ammo hard to get and expensive it would be a “deterrent” to gun ownership. This would have been the smoother approach the administration could have taken.

    But now in reality, it has a new twist. Number the bullets and make old ammo illegal. This has got to be the most insane proposal I have ever heard.

    I can tell you for a fact, most Sheriffs in rural areas will be against this, especially in Georgia. Dekalb County, Georgia, a small, rural county instituted a law many years ago mandating gun ownership by homeowners and has been (as far as I know) one of the lowest crime counties in the country.

    They rounded up over a half million handguns in Australia several years ago and the next year had a 300 percent increase in violent homicide.

    Please join me in writing to your representatives and local police and sheriffs. This has to be stopped now, before it gets out of hand.

  17. The ammo legislative site said when criminals “buy” ammo. Shows how naive they are. Besides anyone with a pair of pliers can dismantle a cartridge, file the bullet, and put it back. Wait – ban pliers too!

  18. Launch a preemptive strike and make it illegal to be an idiot.

    Cut their political base out from under them.

  19. Makes me glad I use ‘cash’ 90% of the time when I buy ammo, less of a paper trail. Then one of the local PA morons is trying to get a $.05 cent per bullet tax passed here…. imagine what a 500 round box of .22’s would cost.

    Gun laws are like kids with cookies, give them one, their gonna want another, or some milk . . . . and it just keeps on going.

  20. Sounds like some people haven’t been paying attention. This has been going around for a couple of years now. It hasn’t gotten anywhere. The company that developed the technology coudn’t interest any body in it so thay went anti gun( don’t know if they were before) and is now trying to get it legislatively mandated to make a buck. What’s the NRA doing – read ALL of your American Rifleman- you know- the parts you don’t read because they’re too political- that’s were I found out about this a long time ago. Yeah I don’t like to have to read that stuff either but it’s DAMN important. and if you aren’t a NRA member JOIN THE NRA and every progun org. you can find, state local, regional, national.

  21. And to think we have elected a few of the village idiots that are drafting this nonsense. My guess would be it started in Kaliforna the communist state

  22. This is scary… It’s gonna be a rough 4 years!!

    Submitted by cbaus on Thu, 01/08/2009
    The Democrats’ current gun-ban-list proposal (final list will be worse):

    Rifles (or copies or duplicates):

    M1 Carbine, Sturm Ruger Mini-14, AR-15, Bushmaster XM15, Armalite M15, AR-10, Thompson 1927, Thompson M1;
    AK, AKM, AKS, AK-47, AK-74, ARM, MAK90, NHM 90, NHM 91, SA 85, SA 93, VEPR;

    Olympic Arms PCR; AR70, Calico Liberty, Dragunov SVD Sniper Rifle or Dragunov SVU, Fabrique National FN/FAL, FN/LAR, or FNC, Hi-Point Carbine, HK-91, HK-93, HK-94, HK-PSG-1, Thompson 1927 Commando, Kel-Tec Sub Rifle;

    Saiga, SAR-8, SAR-4800, SKS with detachable magazine, SLG 95, SLR 95 or 96, Steyr AU, Tavor, Uzi, Galil and Uzi Sporter, Galil Sporter, or Galil Sniper Rifle (Galatz).

    Pistols (or copies or duplicates):
    Calico M-110, MAC-10, MAC-11, or MPA3, Olympic Arms OA, TEC-9, TEC-DC9, TEC-22 Scorpion, or AB-10, Uzi.

    Shotguns (or copies or duplicates):
    Armscor 30 BG, SPAS 12 or LAW 12, Striker 12, Streetsweeper.

    Catch-all category (for anything missed or new designs):
    A semiautomatic rifle that accepts a detachable magazine and has (i) a folding or telescoping stock, (ii) a threaded barrel, (iii) a pistol grip (which includes ANYTHING that can serve as a grip, see below), (iv) a forward grip; or a barrel shroud.

    Any semiautomatic rifle with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds (except tubular magazine .22 rimfire rifles).
    A semiautomatic pistol that has the ability to accept a detachable magazine, and has (i) a second pistol grip, (ii) a threaded barrel, (iii) a barrel shroud or (iv) can accept a detachable magazine outside of the pistol grip, and (v) a semiautomatic pistol with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds.

    A semiautomatic shotgun with (i) a folding or telescoping stock, (ii) a pistol grip (see definition below), (iii) the ability to accept a detachable magazine or a fixed magazine capacity of more than 5 rounds, and (iv) a shotgun with a revolving cylinder.

    Frames or receivers for the above are included, along with conversion kits.

    Attorney General gets carte blanche to ban guns at will:
    Under the proposal, the U.S. Attorney General can add any “semiautomatic rifle or shotgun originally designed for military or law enforcement use, or a firearm based on the design of such a firearm, that is not particularly suitable for sporting purposes, as determined by the Attorney General.” Note that Obama’s pick for this office (Eric Holder, confirmation hearing set for Jan. 15) wrote a brief in the Heller case supporting the position that you have no right to have a working firearm in your own home.

    In making this determination, the bill says, “there shall be a rebuttable presumption that a firearm procured for use by the United States military or any federal law enforcement agency is not particularly suitable for sporting purposes, and a firearm shall not be determined to be particularly suitable for sporting purposes solely because the firearm is suitable for use in a sporting event.”
    In plain English this means that ANY firearm ever obtained by federal officers or the military is not suitable for the public.

    That presumption can be challenged only by suing the federal government over each firearm it decides to ban, in a court it runs with a judge it pays. This virtually dismisses the principles of the Second Amendment.

    The last part is particularly clever, stating that a firearm doesn’t have a sporting purpose just because it can be used for sporting purpose — is that devious or what? And of course, “sporting purpose” is a rights infringement with no constitutional or historical support whatsoever, invented by domestic enemies of the right to keep and bear arms to further their cause of disarming the innocent.
    If these near-total bans aren’t enough, the most dangerous part may be the phrase “pistol grip” because: “The term ‘pistol grip’ means a grip, a thumbhole stock, or any other characteristic that can function as a grip.” In other words, any semi-auto long gun with a grip (that’s ALL semi-auto long guns) would be banned under the existing proposal. It’s not clear what they hope to achieve by deceptively banning guns with grips instead of just calling to ban the guns — even an idjit can tell it’s the same thing.

    I didn’t cover here all the magazine bans, transfer bans, dealer record-keeping and centralized reporting, and a host of nuisance details — there will be time enough for that when the new lists are released soon: “As soon as President-elect Obama is inaugurated and the 111th Congress is sworn in,” according to Ms. Brady. Congress is set to be sworn in on Jan. 6, Inauguration Day is Jan. 20.

    No one expects the new proposal to be less abusive than the current one supported by the party of the Democrats. Remember — these bans were proposed when the congressional anti-rights crowd had no chance of success. Now they are ready to run wild, or according to Sarah herself, “I have never been so confident.”

    The “news” media has failed to report on any of this, preferring instead to blare that the incoming president supports the Second Amendment and commonsense (sic) laws.

    To see the whole bill, go to http://thomas.loc.gov and search for HR 1022, (switch to the 110th Congress if the 111th has begun).
    The excellent Firearms Coalition started by the late Neal Knox and now run by his family members makes these important points about the upcoming Judiciary hearings for AG nominee Holder:

    “The Democrat members of the Judiciary Committee are all sworn enemies to the Second Amendment and are unlikely to be swayed at all by any firearms related arguments, but might hesitate to confirm based on Holder’s participation in the pardons of 16 Puerto Rican terrorists and billionaire financier and arms merchant Marc Rich [and perhaps the Elian Gonzalez abduction by federal agents Holder authorized]. Any letters to Democrats should focus on those issues.

    “On the Republican side, Arlen Specter, the ranking Republican on the committee has never been a friend to gun rights, but he owes his reelection to NRA support and has expressed concern over the pardon issues. Among the other Republicans, most are relatively reliable votes, but only Coburn has routinely taken a leadership role on Second Amendment matters. All of them need to be pressed hard to do everything they can to block the appointment.

    “For more information about Eric Holder and why his appointment must be fought tooth and nail, go to our web site at http://www.FirearmsCoalition.org .”

  24. Simple act of disobediance here. If every gun owner purchased a box of ammo, “switched or swapped” “Illegally” and reported their ammo stolen, this whole system would be made obsolete and ineffective overnight.

  25. Millions of Americans made into instant criminals? I think not. The only criminals would be those of our 535 “representatives” who vote it into law. I’m sure we can find a jail THESE criminals would fit in.

  26. I went to the site, pulled up the California bill, did a search of the PDF file and could only find one mention of the word ‘ammunition’ and no instances of either ‘bullet’ or ‘cartridge’. The use of the word ammunition was in a situation where possession of a gun and ammunition for it could be seen as possession of a loaded gun. (I just went back and checked for ‘ordnance’ and ordinance’- not there, either) I didn’t see any plan for marking bullets, etc. The search was for the excised/crossed-out parts as well. I’m not going to go to each state’s proposals and check – I live in CA, so i checked. I didn’t see the mentioned plan to register bullets. Could someone send me what I am missing?

  27. hi, It reminded me a joke i’ve heard some days ago. As the moral is closely the same! =) A fella in his 40’s bought a brand-new Audi and was initially out on the interstate to get a nice night drive. The top was initially off, the breeze was swaying through what was left of his wild hair and he decided to open her up. As the hook hopped as much as ninety mph, he eventually saw blinking crimson and blue lighting behind him. “There’s not a way they can capture that auto!,” he assumed to himself and opened her up more. A needle hit 90, 100…. Next the reality of the problem hit him. “What a heck am I doing?” he thought and pulled over. The cop came up to him, took his license without having a word and examined it as well as the car. “It is been a very long day, this is the end of my shift and it’s Friday the 13th. I do not really feel like far more paperwork, thus if you possibly can give me an reason for the driving a car that I haven’t heard before, you possibly can go.” The man thinks about for a second and claims, “Last week my wife ran off with a cop. I was frightened you were trying to deliver her back.” “Have a good weekend,” said the police officer.