By Daniel Dye
-- Fellow hunters and shooters take notice. Our firearm rights are under attack. However, the issue at hand has nothing to do with eliminating access to hunting land or imposing minimum age limits for hunters.
This time the threat comes in the form of bullet serialization. The manufacturing process of bullet serialization is where each bullet and its casing is laser engraved with a matching serial number.
As early as 2009, if legislation is passed in a number of states currently discussing these bills, our reality could include the surrendering of our currently legal, non-serialized ammunition; a colossal jump in ammunition costs for individuals, law enforcement and the military; an end to reloading ammunition altogether; a tax on each round of ammunition. This will also potentially cost ammunition companies boatloads of money to convert their manufacturing processes.
Additionally, our personal information and the ammunition serial numbers will be added to a database. We will be forever tied to every box of ammunition we purchase.
The bullet serialization idea was cooked up by Russ Ford of Ammunition Coding Systems. Ford claims an optical character recognition system used by the United States Postal System, among other companies, could be incorporated by ammunition manufacturers. However, some of the country's largest ammunition manufacturers state this process would make it impossible to turn a profit.
According to the National Shooting Sports website, 18 states have considered or are considering bullet serialization bills. You can track the bills here. Because politicians across the country have failed time and again to directly take away our firearms they are going after the next best thing - ammunition.
While there are many noticeable flaws with Ford's bullet serialization proposal, the bottom line is that his claims have not been tested by a single ammunition manufacturer. As of today, Ford's proposal is nothing more than a theory.
Now is the time for sportsmen and sportswomen to be proactive even if your state is not considering this piece of legislation. Go to http://www.congress.org to find your state legislators and tell them that you strongly oppose bullet serialization legislation.
This video is provided courtesy of the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action.
NRANews.com Interview with Russ Ford of Ammunition Coding Systems
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