The Epoch Times is reporting today that Democrats in the Pennsylvania legislature have proposed legislation to tax and encode ammunition sold in the state.
The article reports:
A 5 cent per bullet tax will be proposed in Pennsylvania as part of legislation to be brought forth by two state House Democrats, Rep. Manny Guzman and Rep. Stephen Kinsey.
The tax would fund a state police database of ammunition sold in Pennsylvania.
The planned legislation would require ammunition manufacturers to encode ammunition provided for retail sale in Pennsylvania, and to provide ammunition serial numbers to the Pennsylvania State Police for the ammunition database. The plan was revealed in a joint memo to the state legislature by Guzman and Kinsey.
“Since 2015, only 21% of the nearly 8,500 shootings that Philadelphia has endured have resulted in an arrest or conviction,” the memo said. “Far too often, all that is left for the police to find is a victim and a bullet. By making the bullet a more useable piece of evidence, independent from the associated firearm, we can give our law enforcement officers the tools that they need to solve more of these heinous crimes.”
“By maintaining a record of purchases of ammunition,” the memo continues, “our law enforcement officers will be able to easily trace the ownership of any ammunition involved in a crime. This proposal is a much more reliable method of forensic tracing than current systems like ballistic fingerprinting, since determination of a bullet’s code does not require any special skills or equipment, and it serves as an objective identifier.”
Has it occurred to anyone that cause of the problem of shootings in Philadelphia might not be ammunition?
This is ridiculous. It would set up a situation where people living near the border with other states would simply drive into a neighboring state to purchase ammunition. It would also task the state police with keeping a database of ammunition–which would be time-consuming, expensive, and probably not particularly helpful. How much time would be wasted registering ammunition that people were firing at rifle ranges? What is the percentage of ammunition purchased that is actually used to commit crimes? Does anyone actually believe that criminals with evil intentions would purchase ammunition that they knew would be tracked?
Hopefully common sense will prevail in the legislature. If not in the legislature, at least in the courts. This is simply another attempt to infringe on the constitutional rights of Americans. It needs to be stopped in its tracks.