California Ammunition Measures Promote Racial Profiling

Civil rights group says some California gun bills and a ballot initiative requiring ammunition tracking and registration are designed to encourage racial profiling, putting minority gun owners at greater risk

.338 Federal Ammunition
California Ammunition Measures Promote Racial Profiling
Firearms Policy Coalition
Firearms Policy Coalition

Sacramento, CA -(AmmoLand.com)- Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, Senate President Kevin de León, and Assembly member Kevin McCarty are all sponsoring measures that require some form of ammunition tracking and registration.

And, says civil rights group Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), they are all hoping that the public ignores one little-known side effect of their efforts––the promotion of state-sponsored racial profiling.

“Politicians like Senator de León know that these programs encourage racial profiling and they just don’t care,” said Craig DeLuz, FPC’s California lobbyist and spokesperson. “In fact, not only are they aware that their policies result in negative profiling, it’s a core part of their gun control agenda.”

FPC recently published a video explaining the anti-gun strategy and philosophy behind the ammunition tracking and registration measures. The video, available online at https://youtu.be/qAL5Egbi_pI, features public comments made by Anthony Martinez during a 2008 Sacramento City Council meeting where, during a public comment period, the young Latino man shared his experience with the city’s ammunition ordinance.

The Sacramento ordinance was used as a model for SB 1235 (de León), AB 156 (McCarty), and parts of Gavin Newsom’s “Safety for All Act” gun control ballot initiative.

During his testimony, Martinez told the council—which included then-City Councilmember Kevin McCarty—that, mere days after lawfully purchasing ammunition for target shooting, he was told by a Sacramento Police Detective that they needed to run a ballistics test on his firearm to rule him out as a suspect in a recent homicide investigation.

“I was under the impression that they weren’t going to profile normal, law-abiding citizens,” Martinez said. “I have no felonies. Nor do I have a criminal record.”

When questioned, a representative from the Sacramento Police Department told the council that racial profiling is a “common practice” and represents good police work.

The author of SB 1235, Senator de León, agrees.

In fact, the FPC video includes a clip of the Senator saying as much during a 2014 legislative hearing where he noted that most of those who purchase large amounts of ammunition are “white males, over the age of 50,” and those who did not fit that description would warrant suspicion.

“It’s not okay to profile someone for ‘driving while black’ and it’s not okay to profile someone for ‘buying ammunition while black’, either,” commented DeLuz.

SB 1235 and AB 156 recently passed off the State Senate Floor and are on their way to the Assembly. AB 156 was recently “gutted and amended” from a measure that dealt with global warming. It is unclear whether Assembly Speaker Rendon will require the measure to be referred to a policy committee for a full vetting or if he will ignore the rules and allow a concurrence vote on the floor.

Gavin Newsom’s gun control ballot initiative is still awaiting confirmation from the Secretary of State’s Office that it has qualified for the November 2016 ballot.

The ammunition provisions within the initiative are identical to de León’s SB 53 from 2014, which failed passage in the State Assembly.

About the Firearms Policy Coalition:

Firearms Policy Coalition is a grassroots 501(c)4 nonprofit public benefit organization. FPC’s mission is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, especially the fundamental, individual Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

For more information, visit: www.firearmspolicy.org.

6 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Janek

Don’t these fools know the best way to track bullets is to mix in a few ‘tracers’ when you load your hi-cap magazines?

Elder Ambassador

It is coming soon to that time when we isolate the Peoples Democratic Republic of Kalifornia (PDRK) from free America. Embargo all shipments, including financial, to and from them, close the harbor at L.A., Monterey, Frisco, and everywhere else along the Pacific. Nothing in, nothing out. Anyone desiring to emigrate to free America will be quarantined for 2 years in a camp in Arizona run by Sheriff Arpaio. Deep background checks will be conducted into the past life of EVERY potential émigré and those failing to pass taken back to the PDRK by helicopter and dropped from 10,000 feet (can’t… Read more »

Lee

Don’t all of you crazy gun advocates realize that if you make guns and ammo illegal it is best for everyone living in California. Why not add the mandate that the police should only be allowed to carry batons and whistles too. Very soon afterwards, all the criminals will have robbed or killed all the unarmed people and then we can move in and clean up the mess the correct way.

Russell in OREGON

California Government is FULL OF MORONS … I moved far, far away ( I can still see the high mountains just across the boarder) but THATS IT !

Matt in Oklahoma

Kali

RAYMOND

Gavin can go F::K himself, the supreme courts have already made a decision on a exact case, and found it to be unconstitutional, this idiot, when he was mayor of san Francisco, he passed a law that made handguns illegal in san Francisco, the federal courts jumped all over his dumb ass, and told him to abolish his unconstitutional law, and he had to, now he wants background checks on people who perches ammo, and not only that they must pay the D.O.G 50 dollars for a permit to perches ammo, that will last two years and then you must… Read more »