A bill that would require a driver’s license and a thumbprint for purchases of handgun ammo is on the governor’s desk awaiting his signature. The proposed law from Assemblyman Kevin de Leon, AB962, would also ban sales over the internet or through the mail.

The proposed law is called the Anti-Gang Neighborhood Protection Act of 2009. It will prove to be major headache for responsible gun owners, and will be only a minor annoyance for gang members. Somebody tell de Leon that it’s also comically self-defeating. Follow the thought process:

1. Problem: outlaws are murdering people
2. Solution: write a law saying you can’t murder
3. Problem: outlaws don’t follow laws, and they are still murdering people
4. Solution: write a law saying they can’t have guns
5. Problem: outlaws don’t follow laws, are still getting guns, and are still murdering people
6. Solution: write a law saying they can’t have ammo

…which, of course, will promptly be ignored by the outlaws because outlaws—by  definition—do not follow laws, Assemblyman de Leon! When your law fails, what should we do next? Outlaw gunpowder? Oh if only there were no gunpowder, nobody would get shot…

Do you seriously think that gang members are risking felonies by ignoring anti-handgun laws—but for some reason they will suddenly stop buying ammo for their felonious guns because they are afraid of your misdemeanor?

The only effects of bills such as these are to make it impossible for responsible people to protect themselves from well-armed outlaws. The original bill would have even banned ammo transfers between family members, but thankfully that was cut out of the final version.

Today’s Ventura County Star article on AB962 cited a Rand Corp. study in 2004 in Los Angeles.

It surveyed ammunition purchases over a two-month period and determined that 2.8 percent of purchasers were individuals who were legally prohibited from owning guns or bullets.

That means that we are going to enact a law and possibly violate the Constitutional rights of 97.2 percent of Californians in order to discourage 2.8 percent of law-breakers who, studies have shown, will continue to break the law?

That depends on the governor, who would have to sign the bill by October 11^th for it to become law. Let's hope he has more sense than de Leon.