Ammo Background Checks Add New Fee And Regulation To Gun Industry
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Starting Monday, people are required to get a background check to buy ammunition. Already, dealers are already reporting delays and glitches in the online system.
It's a new state law to curb gun violence and was a part of Prop. 63, which was approved by voters in 2016.
Gun owners and advocates argue the gun industry is already heavily regulated.
"I don't think that they are so much upset about the background checks -- I know some of them are. I think they're primarily upset with the $1 fee for the background check fee," said Elijah Trujillo with KW Defence Inc.
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Store clerks like Trujillo run background checks on customers to make sure they're allowed to buy before handing the ammo over.
"I think a lot of California gun owners are seeing it as an additional tax on them, on top of the paycheck, they're taxed on the 9% tax here in Stockton, California," Trujillo said.
In order to purchase ammo, it will cost customers $1 for that background check, and some gun store owners say it won't necessarily take the bite out of crime. Trujillo believes criminals will always find a way to get around the law.
"Do I think they're going to walk into a gun store and buy their $1 background check on ammo? No they'll steal it; they'll have someone else buy it for them," Trujillo said.
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The regulations make sense for lawmakers making sure ammo doesn't get into the wrong hands.
"It's an incredibly vibrant market and we find oftentimes in mass shootings and other horrific events the person at issue was ordering thousands and thousands of rounds," said Robyn Thomas, the Executive Director of the Giffords Law Center.
Trujillo said it's too soon to see if his business will be hurting, but he's already shell shocked by the new law.
"It's a dollar here, it's a dollar there, I mean where does it end? Where does it stop?" Trujillo said.