Seriously? Illinois proposal would require every bullet sold to have a serial number

Chicago is plagued by an historic wave of black-on-black murders leading legislators to deal with it the only way they know how – gun control, or in this case, bullet control.

on Tuesday, a group of legislators and gun control activists proposed that every bullet sold in Illinois be coded with a serial number, so the ammunition could be traced back to the store where it was purchased.

Politicians and community leaders don’t even want to mention the real problem – gang violence and black-on-black crime. In fact a leaked DCCC memo authored by Troy Perry ordered staffers not to mention black-on-black violence.

Even the city paper recognizes the issue that its city’s leaders won’t talk about.

Politicians know that the gangs are reason for the deaths. Calling it “gun violence” is much safer, especially in wards where gangs often provide political muscle.

“Have you ever heard a Chicago alderman call out a street gang by name?” O’Connor asked. “No? Me neither.”

It is difficult to fix something you’re not willing to talk about and by ignoring that the fundamental reason all those young black men are getting shot is that gangs are taking over parts of Chicago and have no fear or respect for law enforcement.

“One big difference is that now, on the street, there is no fear. Even in the ’90s, with all the killing, the gangs feared the police. When we’d show up, they’d run. But now? Now they don’t run. Now, there is no fear.”

So instead of dealing with the real problems of the inner city, politicians point the finger at ammo manufacturers and sporting goods retailers.

Having to engrave a serial number on the jacket of a bullet and record which distributor it was sold to will seriously increase the cost of manufacturing cartridges. Costs that will surely be passed on to the retailer and then the consumer.

Distributors would then have to have separate inventory for Illinois than for the rest of the country. Again, these companies would have to track each serial number as to which retailer purchased the ammo.

Retailers would then have to have a process by which each and every serial number was recorded as to who purchased the cartridge.

All of these things require resources that will increase ammo prices to levels affordable only to the wealthy – which is likely the real objective and why anti-gun activists are heavily in-favor of this proposal.

This move would likely just push ammo into a black market setting. Cartridges can be purchased online, out-of-state or even hand made using inexpensive and readily available hand loading machines.

Tracking Illinois-purchased bullets will do nothing to slow gang violence, but at least the politicians can feel good believing that they did something… anything – no matter how ineffective.