I wish I could say I’m shocked, but this is New York. It’s an anti-gun state. Of course, some local legislators were going to try and regulate the sale of ammunition (via Brooklyn Daily Eagle):
State lawmakers from Brooklyn announced on Monday new draft legislation aimed at tightly restricting the sale of ammunition in New York.The Senate and Assembly bills were drafted in an effort to keep potential terrorists from stocking up on ammo, according to sponsors state Sen. Roxanne Persaud and Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon. The twin bills are backed by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who worked with Persaud and Simon to craft them.
The legislation would place a strict limit on the number of bullets a gun owner could purchase over a 90-day time period, and prevent gun dealers from selling ammunition for a firearm to anyone unauthorized to have such a weapon.
[…]
Since the measure would cap the amount of ammunition to no more than twice the amount of the capacity of the weapon every 90 days, these gun owners would be limited to buying a dozen bullets every three months.
[…]
Penalty for the violation of this law would also be increased from a Class B misdemeanor, or not more than three months in jail and not more than $500 in fines, to a Class E felony, or up to four years in prison with a minimum of one year.
Now, back in the day, I would have said that gun owners and Second Amendment enthusiasts should come to Virginia, but that’s before Attorney General Mark Herring decided to mess with our concealed carry reciprocity agreements. Nevertheless, there are plenty other pro-gun states to relocate to if you can.
Nevertheless, it goes without saying that this law is just absurd. First of all, anyone with a firearm who is barred from owning one via federal law is, uh, (shocker) breaking the law. Most, if not all, FFL dealers call the local police and the ATF if a flagged person is identified on the NICS system during a background check. So, the ammo provision is redundant. Second, it’s a logical fallacy that people who buy ammunition in bulk have pernicious intent. Some people spend an hour or more at the range. Hundreds of rounds of ammunition could be spent during that period.
Since legislators can’t ban or confiscate guns, a few are either taxing them out of existence or drafting these nonsense ammo regulations to prevent law-abiding citizens from exercising their Second Amendment rights.
New York already has a so-called assault weapons ban and limits all magazines to ten rounds. It was originally seven rounds, but a judge struck down that provision, viewing it as “an arbitrary restriction” that violated the Second Amendment.” Oh, and the fact that seven-round magazines are incredibly hard to find.