Detroit, Michigan –-(Ammoland.com)- Wayne County commissioner Reggie Davis decided that since he can’t ban guns due to the Second Amendment, he would go after ammunition sales.
Davis is proposing new rules for the purchase of ammunition in Wayne County.
Wayne County is the most populous county in Michigan. It is home to 1.7 million people and includes the city of Detroit. The county encompasses a total area of 673 square miles.
Davis’s “bullet bill” ordinance would require law enforcement approval before a buyer could purchase ammunition. The buyer would also have to go through a mental screening to qualify to buy ammo. The buyer would need to repeat these steps for each new ammunition purchase. The purchaser would be forced to cover the cost of the screening.
Gun shows would be exempt, but the buyer would still have to produce a non-expired certificate from a mental health screening stating that they are eligible to purchase ammunition.
“We’re up against some state and federal laws. Even if it takes me going to lobby in D.C., and I expect it will, we need to make these changes,” Davis told the Detroit Free Press.
Not only will Davis’s “bullet bill” increase the cost and time that it would take a consumer to buy ammunition by forcing them to go through a mental background check, but the bill would also put a new tax on all ammo sold to customers.
According to Davis, the money collected via the tax would go to teach students “about the second amendment, about how to use a gun safely and about gun violence.”
Davis does not believe his legislation be to unconstitutional. Although he does expect resistance from pro-gun groups like the NRA, he considers his proposal as a common-sense reform. He also states that he is a believer in the Second Amendment and has respect for groups such as the NRA.
Davis hopes to work with the NRA to find a compromise that would be agreeable to all parties. So far, the NRA does not have a public stance on the “bullet bill.” This lack of a stance is most likely due to the newness of the proposed legislation.
Davis was a gun owner who claimed to own Glocks, sawed-off shotguns, and sniper rifles. An assailant shot and killed Davis’s brother. This experience set Davis off on his crusade for gun reform. Davis no long owns any firearms.
Others do not share Davis’s opinion that this move is constitutional and sees other motives for the ordinance including continued racism by the Democratic party.
“As the President of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies who happens to be on the NRA Board, I’ll call this what it is. This is clear and obvious racism by Democrats running Wayne County on behalf of the progressive socialist political agenda,” National Federation of Republican Assemblies President Willes Lee told AmmoLand. “Heck, this is economic discrimination, hitting friends who most need self-protection and can least afford this proposed so-called ‘public safety’ measure.”
Lee went on to tell AmmoLand, “Our Second Amendment ‘Shall Not Be Infringed’ does not include law-abiding neighbors paying for forced mental evaluations by progressive doctors to exercise our God-given right of self-defense. It does not include Wayne County’s liberal law enforcement granting ‘approval’ of good folks’ right to defend their life. ‘Shall not be infringed’ does not include or even imply an additional tax on those least able to afford it, taking food off their table, to defend their children and property.”
Lee is not alone in his beliefs. AmmoLand spoke to Gun Owners of America Director of Communications Jordan Stein about the proposal. He too does not believe it to be constitutional.
“Just as firearms are protected under the Second Amendment, ammunition is secured as well,” Stein told AmmoLand. “As every other prior restraint on the Second Amendment, this proposed gun control will be ignored by criminals and make it harder for honest people to defend themselves.”
AmmoLand reached out to Davis to get a comment about how this proposal would hurt poor shooters from places like the inner city of Detroit more than shooters from the middle-class suburbs, but Davis did not return our request for comment as of the time of this writing.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on leftist deplatforming methods and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, on Facebook at realjohncrump, or at www.crumpy.com.