California Ammunition Serial Number Stupidity

The California legislature has just passed out of committee a bill that would require all handgun ammunition sold in the state after 2007 to have unique serial numbers, which can be traced back to the purchaser. (Article here).

What a dumb idea. As usually is the case with gun control laws, this law will hurt the ammunition manufacturers and legal users, and have no impact on criminals.

• Vast stockpiles of un-numbered ammunition exist, and will take years to be expended.
• Unless all the other states follow suit, anyone would be able to obtain unmarked ammo by going to a different state.
• Even if all US made ammunition is marked, unmarked ammunition will be smuggled in on the black market, just as cocaine, heroin, and illegal weapons are.
• Serial numbers on guns have not enabled the police to trace weapons from manufacture to criminal reliably, so why would ammunition serial numbers?