In a setback for gun-control advocates, a state appeals court has barred enforcement of a California law that would require all purchases of ammunition "principally for use" in handguns to be made in person rather than by mail order or on the Internet.
The law, which has been blocked by court orders since 2011, would require buyers of ammunition to be thumb-printed and sellers to keep records of the transactions.
Most types of ammunition are not limited to handguns, but can be used in rifles and other firearms, the Fifth District Court of Appeal said in a 2-1 ruling Wednesday. As a result, the court said, those affected by the law would not have fair notice of whether it applies to their transactions and when they might be at risk of prosecution.
Neither the law nor testimony by experts and gun dealers has provided "a common understanding or objective meaning of the term 'handgun ammunition,' " said Justice Gene Gomes in the majority opinion. The law's vague wording could lead to inconsistent and unpredictable enforcement, he said, and could make compliance difficult or impossible for mail-order and Internet ammunition sellers.
So, the law was overturned because the wording was too vague, not because there's anything wrong with the substance of it. In the fullness of time, it'll come back.
Its a wonderful example of dysfunctional law these days. It seems like this is happening more and more these days. Someone tries to write a law when they have no real idea how it will effect real people. It happens on both sides of the aisle, though laws passed on the Democratic side have been getting more press recently.
ReplyDeleteWe've already covered Sunnyvale. Lets mention the New York SAFE Act. They were in so much of a hurry to pass it, no one noticed they hadn't included the obligatory exemption for law enforcement. Then there was the little detail that there were no seven round magazines available for many handguns.
The big rush to pass SOMETHING, ANYTHING has also resulted in what is called Obamacare. This rush to legislate has resulted in the President having to make a public apology because the implementation of the law is resulting in actions he assured the public wouldn't happen.
The reason this law governing sales of ammo would have been very significant to the persons being prosecuted for violating it unknowingly. When I buy ammo from Walmart, the cashiers are often completely ignorant about what ammo is for rifles or handguns and end up asking me. And this is just because of their policy regarding sales of handgun ammo.
The law is written as vaguely as possible to create an impossibility of legality, and thus set the groundwork for a random and intermittent patchwork of prosecutions and draconian sentences, to discourage anyone from engaging in activities that we find to be contrary to our authority.
DeleteLaws are not written to be obeyed. Laws are crafted to punish enemies of the State.
Of course your answer to vague law is to make it bigger. Can't ban just handgun ammo shipped sales? Ban 'em all. "Assault weapon" definition too arbitrary? Ban all the semi-autos.
ReplyDeleteMany of us laud the day which our political pawns can tell the American people that they are not allowed to posses any kind of firearm, ammunition, dangerous knives, explosives, or other weapons.
DeleteWhile I see the gun control debate as more of an entertaining extract of the human culture and a humorous segment of the triumph of the collective over the meek individual, as opposed to a ideologically manifested paradigm of the ideal, I distinctly prefer to do business in an environment in which the subject populations can't shoot back.
This law was simply stupid, and it got tossed out. If you control freaks would grow a brain, we wouldn't have to keep fighting your every screw up.
ReplyDeleteLow level State officials don't need a brain. They need the ears to listen to those who sign their checks.
DeleteNo, the law makes a lot of sense. It was not overturned for its substance but for the fact that it was too vague.
DeleteHow does that law make sense? Your goal is to clog up the system to make as few people as possible able to buy ammunition.
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