California gun owners brace for shortages, price hikes under new ammo regulations

Ammunition sales have spiked dramatically during the last month as gun owners try to beat the clock on new regulations.

Boxes holding 1,000 bullets have been selling fast at Stage Stop Gun Shop in Atwater. The store wasn’t able to keep AR-15 rifles on the shelf before new regulations on that gun came into effect last month, owner Joey Verna said.

“There are a lot of people buying them because somebody’s telling them they can’t have it,” he said.

California lawmakers and voters passed a slew of gun-control laws in 2016 that impose significant new restrictions on the state’s more than 6 million firearms owners. The new regulations, which take effect in stages over the next two years, affect a broad range of practices, from where you buy your ammunition to how you store your guns and who can borrow them.

Several of the new laws specifically target ammunition purchases. Among the changes coming as of January 2018: Californians who want to buy ammunition online or through catalogs will have to ship their purchases through a licensed dealer. And for the first time, state residents will have to undergo a background check when buying ammunition.

Verna said he’s already had ammunition mailed to his store, because online sellers are confused about when the regulations become law.

Although the restrictions on ammunition purchases don’t take effect for another year, retailers say gun owners have been buying more ammo amid uncertainty and confusion over the new laws.

“We’re selling a lot more ammunition right now,” said Patrick Jones, owner of Jones’ Fort gun store in Redding. “And we will continue to do so up until the time the registration kicks in.”

It’s not unusual to see spikes in gun and ammunition sales almost any time a new gun law is proposed – let alone passed – at the state or federal level. But law enforcement officials, retailers and other experts on firearms policy say, in the case of California’s new regulations, the fears that gun enthusiasts have about rising prices and limited availability of some types of ammunition likely are well-founded.

A major concern is that the new regulations, intended to keep ammunition out of the hands of felons and other dangerous people, will particularly disrupt life for rural hunters and shooters who have limited local options for shopping.

“There are some definite things in there that concern me – the difficulty that it’s going to create for legitimate sportsmen and sportswomen … completely legal people trying to buy ammo to try to do a legal thing,” said David Bess, chief of enforcement at the Department of Fish and Wildlife. The game wardens Bess oversees enforce state hunting and gun laws and are among the law enforcement officers most likely to encounter hunters and target shooters in the field.

Under the existing rules, anyone age 18 or older (21 or older for handguns) can buy ammunition without a background check, and sellers need no special training or license. The new laws mandate that by Jan. 1, 2018, all ammunition in California must be purchased in person through a vendor licensed by the Department of Justice. Starting that date, online orders of ammunition also must be processed through one of these vendors.

With limited exceptions, people will be barred from giving away ammunition without going through a vendor, and people won’t be able to legally import ammunition purchased out of state, unless it’s shipped to a licensed California dealer. Violators can face misdemeanor charges.

Starting in July 2019, another layer of oversight kicks in: Anyone buying ammunition from a vendor will be required to undergo background screening via a state system.

The idea behind the new system is to make it more difficult for felons and others who can’t pass a background check to get ammunition – with the hope that lives will be saved. “It just makes it a little bit harder for those people to have ammunition,” said Adam Winkler, a professor at UCLA School of Law who writes about Second Amendment issues.

But adding to the confusion for law-abiding gun owners, there are two conflicting background-check requirements that the courts may need to sort out.

Under legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last summer, Californians buying ammunition would need to pass an in-store background check, which involves vendors running information through a Department of Justice database to see if they are prohibited from owning guns. The buyer would pay a fee of up to $1 with each transaction, an amount that can rise with inflation.

Proposition 63, the ballot initiative voters approved in November, sets out a different system. People interested in buying ammunition would have to purchase a four-year permit from the Department of Justice. The state could charge up to $50 for the ammo license. Retailers would be required to check with the department to ensure customers have a valid permit.

It’s not clear which of the provisions will win out. Typically, ballot measures override legislation, but the Legislature passed a bill prior to the November election that attempted to supersede Proposition 63’s licensing requirements.

A court is likely to decide which background-check process becomes law, said Fredric Woocher, a Los Angeles attorney who served as special counsel to former California Attorney General John Van de Kamp.

“Courts have starkly been called on to make a make a lot of difficult decisions,” Woocher said. “And this one is probably not going to be that different.”

Whichever system is implemented, experts say the new requirements are almost certainly going to cause ammunition prices to spike in California. Aside from government fees, vendors are expected to tack on additional charges to make up for the costs associated with the licensing requirement and background checks. Many also will charge a fee to process ammunition transactions from online or out of state.

This story was originally published January 3, 2017 at 5:33 PM with the headline "California gun owners brace for shortages, price hikes under new ammo regulations."