Posted on 07/29/2012 3:38:40 PM PDT by jazusamo
Two Democratic lawmakers on Monday will announce new legislation to regulate the online and mail-order sale of ammunition.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (N.J.) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (N.Y.) said the new law would make the sale of ammunition “safer for law-abiding Americans who are sick and tired of the ease with which criminals can now anonymously stockpile for mass murder,” in a statement released Saturday.
The lawmakers cite the recent movie massacre in Aurora, Colo. for spurring their bill.
“The shooter who killed 12 and injured 58 in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater this month had purchased over 6,000 rounds of ammunition anonymously on the Internet shortly before going on his killing spree, according to law enforcement officials,” the statement reads. “The shooter used a civilian version of the military’s M-16 rifle with a 100-round drum magazine, a shotgun and two .40-caliber semi-automatic handguns commonly used by police officers.”
Lautenberg and McCarthy, who will unveil their new proposal at New York’s City Hall say they intend to “make it harder for criminals to anonymously stockpile ammunition through the Internet.”
Lautenberg and McCarthy are two high profile advocates of gun control legislation, but they face an uphill struggle in Congress.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said last week that he does not intend to bring gun control legislation to the floor and President Obama has been reluctant to press lawmakers to act on the issue in an election year.
Democratic senators though have offered an amendment to the cybersecurity bill that would limit the purchase of high capacity magazines by some consumers. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) defended it last Thursday as a “reasonable” gun control measure.
The amendment is identical to a separate bill proposed in January 2011 by Lautenberg also banning the sale of high capacity ammunition magazines.
After the shootings in Colorado, the New Jersey senator urged lawmakers to reconsider his bill.
“We need to start today on efforts to prevent the next attack,” he said in a statement. “We should begin by passing my legislation to ban the sale of high-capacity gun magazines. No sportsman needs 100 rounds to shoot a duck, but allowing high-capacity magazines in the hands of killers like James Holmes and Jared Loughner puts law enforcement at a disadvantage and innocent lives at risk.”
Loughner, the gunman charged in the shooting of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (R-Ariz.) and Holmes, who is the lone suspect in the Aurora theater shootings are both believed to have used high-capacity magazines.
the libs just don’t get it....pathetic!
So they can't just go to store and pay cash? I can get a lot more ammo than Holmes did without raising any red flags, while purchasing everything local.
Yet another anti-gun bill that does nothing except punish the law-abiding.
Funny that this reporter only mentions Dingy Harry and the Senate prospects for passage of these gun/ammo grabbing bills, but doesn't mention the prospects for passage in the GOP controlled House!!!
Maybe the reporter forgot to mention that the House must also approve these bills for them to become law. Or more likely, didn't want to ruin this puff piece article for gun grabbers by pointing out that these bills are DOA in the GOP controlled House.
I would be suprised if Mccarthy's ammo-banning bill even makes it to a House committee hearing before this Congress ends it's term in January, 2013 or if Boehner just tables the bill himself using his authority as Speaker to do this and no action is taken on it at all. Either way, this bill is DOA in the House - the House GOP leadership is not so stupid as to allow this bill to see the light of day, in my opinion.
One would like to think so.
But one wonders if one can ever be completely certain of the intelligence of the GOP leadership.
Next thing you know, they might be funding the HHS regulation requiring all insurance plans to pay for contraception, abortifacients and abortions...
Whew! Good thing he only had 6,000. Just think how much trouble he could have caused if he had 6,000,000!
/s
first off, 6,000 rounds of .223 weighs in at just shy of 200 pounds (give or take). No one can carry that sort of load if they are on a mission of any sort. I'm interested in hearing how banning bulk sales would have somehow prevented this (CO) incident or even diminished it in some way.
Secondly, I think it's worth pointing out that 100 round drum magazines in the hands of thugs or nuts is an advantage for the LEO. Finding one that functions properly (as shown in the CO case) is next to impossible.
I understand, but feel that even Boehner and Cantor do not want to become enemies of the NRA, Gun Owners of America and other Gun Owners/2nd Amendment supporters, especially this close to an election or even after the election.
Boehner, Cantor and the rest of the House GOP leadership know that allowing Gun Control laws to pass out of the GOP controlled House, especially when there is no national popular call/consensus for gun control legislation to be enacted will mean no more GOP control of the House next year or by the next election after that if they try to pass a lame duck bill. If they lose the solid support of Gun owners, then they know they are thru.
Next thing you know, they might be funding the HHS regulation requiring all insurance plans to pay for contraception, abortifacients and abortions...
I hear you on this and don't understand why Boehner just doesn't allow Obamacare to be funded in next years budget, along with the DOJ/ATF, Homeland Insecurity, the EPA and some other renegade cabinet departments of zero's - it ticks me off as well. But I believe that the House GOP leadership fears backlash from Gun Owners/2nd Amendments supporters more than any other of their core constituencies as this time.
Yeah, every ammo-selling website has that special shopping section for "anonymous criminals wishing to stockpile ammunition."
Customers with valid credit cards and shipping addresses not welcome...
FAIL
If they don't fear a backlash from 1st Amendment religious liberty supporters, we damn well should make them fear it.
Amen!!! Like I posted earlier, I don't understand why Boehner would not want to defund Obamascare - he has absolutely nothing to lose politically by doing this (other than being disinvited from a few Potomac cocktail parties) and can only gain by doing this. Like you said, maybe the House GOP leadership needs to fear the backlash from their supporters who support 1st Amendment Religious Liberties as much as they do Gun Owners/2nd Amendment Supporters!!!
Lautenberg is an old, braindead liberal who should have retired when he still had a functioning brain cell.
Maloney, whose husband was killed by a black racist, is an anti-gun fanatic who has lost most touch with reality.
They should be ignored. Not worth the trouble to deal with.
Any minute now, they will notice that anyone can purchase reloading equipment, lead, copper plate, priming caps and gunpowder, and produce ammunition anonymously and easily. Next they will want to “regulate” reloading equipment, lead, copper plate, priming caps and gunpowder. Then they will notice that anyone with a few household items can make their own gunpowder and mercury fulminate, that there are reloading presses and dyes all over the place, that it’s possible to manufacture more at home, etc. Always, the magic formula for stopping rampaging shooters is one more law away.
He had to use 6,000 rounds and that’s all he hit in a crowded theater? What a helaciously bad shot.
Exactly
I haven’t bought ammo in years, but now am going to get busy stocking up with lots of 7.62 to fill all of the high capacity magazines I bought in the early 90’s when the domestic commies last tried this crap.
I imagine the corrosive Czech stuff in the spam cans is all gone, right?
what next ATF going to be selling guns and ammo in the US at a high profit?
funfan~ “ Well if Harry is against it I guess it will go nowhere.”
It will go nowhere in an election year ,... but hold onto your socks if the POTUS gets re-elcted. BOHICA
It will fail....
Ordering ammunition online is exponentially less anonymous than walking into a store and purchasing it. If I go into WalMart and purchase several hundred rounds of ammo with cash, you might have a grainy surveillance video of me if you somehow were led to the idea I had purchased ammo at WalMart in the first place. This type of purchase would be anonymous.
When I purchase ammunition online, however, I use a credit card and input a shipping address, all information that can already be followed up on by investigators without any additional legislation. Indeed, reports of the Colorado shooter indicate investigators used just such information to determine how much ammo Holmes purchased, and from where. It was the very type of internet purchase they are trying to stifle that allowed investigators to quickly determine the origin of Holmes' ammunition.
Why the legislation, then? Because once they've passed a law that deals with sensationalism ("anonymous" stockpiling of internet purchased ammunition), the donut is in place. The lawmakers then point to the hole left by the donut law - "oh no, now people are gong into local stores and buying ammunition anonymously!" - and they then attempt to close it by further legislating local ammunition purchases, i.e. copying one's driver license for ammo purchases at Wal Mart. They realize that they must move in these tiny steps to deceive the public.
These guys aren't stupid, and they know damned well that regulating internet purchases of ammunition is pointless in itself. It is the leftover hole that they are aiming for, the ability to come back later, once the wedge legislation is in place, to implement further regulation.
The sad thing here is that no one on our side is ever ready to propose legislation to move the ball forward when one of these tragedies occurs. It’s always a defensive posture.
Try this instead: because the Aurora shooting, more people need to carry. Thus, we’re proposing legislation to institute a $100 tax credit for pistol purchases. Or for CHP issuance.
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