Understanding the Stupidity of New York’s Latest Anti-Gun Legislation

Unsurprisingly, New York has passed new gun control laws.

It’s kind of what they do up that way these days, it seems. They don’t like the right to keep and bear arms in any way, shape, or form.

But the issue here is that while all gun control is stupid, some of the arguments New York Gov. Kathy Hochul made are particularly stupid.

Let’s get into some of those, shall we?

Bill S.745/A.439 introduces a merchant code that will make it easier for law enforcement agencies to track firearms and ammunition purchases made via credit card. The first concern, here, is that a whole new layer of public employees will now have at least limited access to private citizens’ credit card information.

More troubling even than that is Hochul’s attempt to justify the Big Brother move against gun rights. “This gives law enforcement the opportunity to find out exactly who may be stockpiling ammunition,” she said. “And this is an indicator that something untoward could be happening, so it’s an important data point for us to have.”

There’s a lot to unpack from this curious reasoning. The first and most obvious point is that there is no federal law – nor, to this author’s knowledge, is there a law in any of the 50 states – against stockpiling ammunition. The New York state government, then, has branded people potentially dangerous or potentially criminal for doing something that is not at all illegal.

There’s also the question of how one defines “stockpiling.” What is the threshold at which the purchase of a large quantity of ammunition or frequent smaller ammo purchases becomes stockpiling? And who gets to decide? The average gun-grabbing politician or activist would likely consider 500 rounds of ammunition a stockpile, while the gun rights advocate would laugh at such an assumption. The dedicated firearms enthusiast or the competitive shooter would tell you that 500 rounds is equal to next month’s range-days ammo. The serious prepper might tell you that you don’t have a stockpile until you’ve got at least maybe 20,000 rounds – that you are not even using for training; that’s ammo kept in reserve for when the excrement hits the fan.

Exactly.

If I don’t burn through at least a couple hundred rounds at the range, I’ve wasted my time completely, and I typically shoot more than that on range days. Buying a thousand rounds is just getting a few months’ worth of ammo at a better price than just stocking up for that particular range trip.

Other people rarely shoot, so buying a couple of boxes of ammo a month allows them to build up a stockpile pretty quickly.

Competitive shooters can go through a thousand rounds in a week. Those going to training classes often have to have a thousand rounds themselves just for that weekend class. Someone doing a few of those per quarter is going to buy a lot of ammo. To outside observers, they’re stockpiling ammo, even if they only have a few magazines worth when they go home at the end of their shooting trip.

Yet we also need to remember the hysterics we heard from the uninformed when the first would-be Trump assassin had a whole 50 rounds of ammunition. That’s a box of pistol ammo, but a lot of people thought that was a stockpile. That’s not the first time I’ve seen people freak out about the total number of bullets someone had, only for it to be a box or two of rounds.

In other words, Hochul’s entire argument is absolutely ridiculous because it’s predicated on watching for behavior that absolutely no one can identify.

But the above-linked post also notes that this is an attempt at intimidation. Knowing people will be tracked may keep many from exercising their Second Amendment rights out of some concern that they’ll get a knock at the door.

As for those with nefarious intentions, though, I’d like to point out that cash is always an option at gun stores. People can “stockpile” ammunition with cash purchases, and absolutely no one will notice.

Then we have the fact that the state banned full-auto switches, which are already illegal, and we have a recipe for burning stupid that is far too typical of New York politics, especially under Hochul.