I stand with CAL-FFL and the Firearms Policy Coalition in my OPPOSITION to S.B. 53.

  • S.B. 53 criminalizes the sale of ammunition between law-abiding family members, friends, and colleagues.
  • S.B. 53 criminalizes direct-ship ammunition purchases.
  • S.B. 53 creates a new backdoor registration of gun owners.
  • S.B. 53 allows DOJ to steal firearm safety fund fees to feed a new ammunition bureaucracy.
  • S.B. 53 adds costly burdens on ammo retailers, consumers, and taxpayers.
  • S.B. 53 would prohibit the sale of constitutionally protected ammunition unless the seller is licensed as an “ammunition vendor” through a narrow and discretionary set of qualifications, eliminating thousands of California jobs.
  • S.B. 53 disproportionately hurts low-income and disadvantaged residents by making ammunition much more expensive and harder to acquire.
  • S.B. 53 does not pre-empt local ordinances, creating multiple layers of ammunition laws, rules, and regulations.
  • S.B. 53 requires a costly study to research how to circumvent interstate commerce law and how to best further encroach on fundamental civil rights.

Before voting on Senator De León’s multi-year crusade against guns and ammunition, you must first ask and answer the following question:

  • If the DOJ is incapable of fixing and enforcing the current Armed Prohibited Persons File, how could they possibly implement this massive, multi-million dollar bureaucracy for ammunition purchaser consumer databasing?

The exercise of constitutionally enumerated civil rights should not be dependent on the good graces of an inefficient, ineffective, and admittedly backlogged state agency like DOJ.

For these reasons, and so many others, I urge you to vote NO on S.B. 53.

Greg Raven, Apple Valley, CA