At Bearing Arms today, Tom Knighton reports on New York's latest anti-gun legislation. One of the features of this legislation is new merchant codes to track the sale of guns and ammunition. You can find the report at Understanding the Stupidity of New York's Latest Anti-Gun Legislation. Governor Kathy Hochul explains that the state needs to know who is buying what guns and ammuntion and who is stockpiling ammunition in case they are planning something.
Now, as Knighton points out, there are no laws against stockpiling ammunition anywhere in the United States. Now, I won't tell you exactly how much I have on hand, but during the various ammunition shortages and buying panics that have occured since Obama was in office, I was not one of the panic buyers. I keep enough on hand to go to the range regularly, though most of my practice is dry firing at home.
Also, the definition of a "stockpile" varies with the intended purpose. Competitive shooters go through a lot of ammo. Guys regularly show up at IDPA matches with a whole ammo can filled with loose rounds. How many rounds in one of those, 2000, 3000? Those taking training classes will go through 1000 rounds in a weekend. Preppers, preparing for TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it) will accumulate vast quantities of ammuntion. All of these people have valid reasons for laying up a reserve of ammo, and none of them is planning anything illegal.
Yet I have seen news stories showing confiscated guns and ammo where there may be a box of pistol ammo described as a "stockpile." One box is not a stockpile. But who is to decide? Do New Yorkers really trust the police to decide these things? Frankly, it is a toss up these days whether the most anti-gun states are those of the Left coast, or on the Northeast coast. I am reminded of a saying attributed to Einstein that one definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over expecting different results. This describes New York's anti-gunners to a "T."
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