House Democrats quietly tucked into a big spending bill a provision to create a so-called universal background check for ammunition purchases.

This means that to buy ammunition from a licensed dealer – or a private sale – you would have to get the same FBI background check as you do to buy a gun. A gun-rights group and a Republican member of the committee are trying to stop it.

The provision is hidden in the Democrats’ report that accompanies the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies appropriations bill for 2023.  Gun Owners of America (GOA) sent an alert to Congress to warn that if the bill gets passed as written, it infringes on Second Amendment rights…

If this funding bill gets passed, Congress directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to report –within one year– on “how best to implement a requirement that background checks be conducted for all ammunition sales, including sales by Federal firearms licensees and private sellers.”

There is currently no federal law for background checks for ammunition. You can just buy it in the store or online over the counter —unless you live in the few states that have this law…

GOA is actively trying to get the provision removed.

“The appropriations packages are just pork, and Democrats often propose outrageous gun control measures in them,” Aidan Johnston, GOA’s Federal Affairs Director told me in an interview. “It’s left up to groups like us to highlight that to the public and to pro-Second Amendment representatives.”

The Democrats’ report says “unlike firearms, Federal law does not require a background check to prevent the illegal purchase of ammunition.” It reads:

The Committee recognizes that the devastating physical damage inflicted by a gunshot is the result of both the firearm used and the ammunition fired.

Johnston pointed to the Democrats’ instructing the GAO to report on four specific issues that would then lead to legislation for ammunition to go through the same federal FBI’s National Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which is used for firearms purchase. ..

Read more at Emily Post News