PD Editorial: Ammo checks

<p>For four decades, California has regulated the sale of firearms.</p><p>A background check is required to ensure that buyers aren’t convicted felons, mentally ill or illegal immigrants, all of whom are prohibited from owning firearms. All sales must go through a licensed dealer. Handgun buyers must complete safety training, and a 10-day waiting period applies to all sales.</p><p>What hasn’t been regulated in California is the sale of ammunition. Until now.</p><p>After vetoing similar legislation previously, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed a bill that establishes new rules for ammunition sales — and gives law enforcement a new tool to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals.</p><p>Assembly Bill 962, by Assemblyman Kevin De Leon, D-Los Angeles, requires vendors to maintain a record including the name, driver’s license number and right thumb print of anyone purchasing handgun ammunition. The records are subject to inspection by law enforcement agencies. The law, which takes effect Feb. 1, 2011, also requires ammunition buyers to pick up their purchases in person, as they already must do to buy a firearm.</p><p>Such restrictions may be inconvenient but, as a recent UC Davis study shows, gun sales in California have kept pace with other states.</p><p>Why are ammunition rules needed? A Rand Corp. study in 2006 found that 10,500 rounds were sold in Los Angeles in two months to felons and others prohibited from possessing firearms.</p><p>Los Angeles and 12 other California cities subsequently adopted local ordinances regulating ammunition sales. Authorities have helped make those communities safer by using sales records to identify and arrest gang members and others illegally possessing firearms.</p><p>In Sacramento, prosecutors won at least 128 criminal convictions and police seized 160 weapons over a 20-month period after the law went into effect. Los Angeles police arrested 25 people in 17 months, confiscated 20 weapons and seized more than 2,900 rounds of ammunition.</p><p>Their success is a good reason to extend the rules statewide. Otherwise, criminals can simply move their purchases to cities that don’t regulate ammunition sales.</p><p>Critics say the laws are unfair to law-abiding gun owners. We say law-abiding gun owners should be pleased to see police cracking down on those who aren’t supposed to be armed in the first place.</p>