Spectrum News 1 - Garcia, Warren reintroduce AMMO Act to create safeguards around ammunition sales

WASHINGTON — As National Gun Violence Awareness Month winds down, Democrats are reintroducing a bill to restrict the bulk sale of ammunition, Spectrum News has learned.

The bill, named the Ammunition Modernization and Monitoring Oversight, or AMMO, Act, would require businesses that sell ammunition to conduct background checks on buyers, ultimately requiring such businesses to obtain the same federal license as gun dealers. 

Currently, there are no federal regulations governing the sales of ammunition. That gives businesses the ability to sell ammunition in any quantity to any seller, with no recordkeeping or identification required, something the bill would also rectify.

Some states, such as California and New York, already require gun owners to pass a background check for every ammunition purchase. But no federal standard has ever been put into place.

"It makes absolutely no sense that anyone in this country can walk into a business and buy as much ammunition as they want, with no background check and no questions asked," said Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., who is leading the bill in the House. "We need to do everything in our power to prevent mass shootings and end our nation's gun violence epidemic. During Gun Violence Awareness Month, I'm proud to help lead a bill that closes this loophole with a commonsense fix that will save lives and protect our communities."

Garcia, a longtime advocate of gun reform since he’s days as Long Beach, Calif., first introduced the AMMO Act during his freshman term in Congress. It's the first piece of legislation introduced by Garcia since his election as ranking member of the House Oversight Committee earlier this week. 

In addition, the legislation would ban straw purchases of ammunition, or the purchasing of ammo for someone prohibited from owning a gun. There is already a federal law in place that punishes individuals for purchasing a gun on behalf of someone else, but no such ban currently exists for ammunition.

The bill, if passed, would also create a limit of 100 rounds for .50 caliber ammo for purchase and 1000 rounds for all other ammunition within a 5-day period.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who led the bill in the Senate in the last Congress, is taking up the charge on the issue again this year.

“Our government needs to step up and limit access to ammunition if we want to stop the gun violence epidemic in this country. I’m going to keep fighting to keep our communities safe from potential mass shooters,” said Warren.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. has also signed on to cosponsor the bill. The legislation has received endorsements from a number of gun safety organizations already, including Everytown for Gun Safety and Sandy Hook Promise.

The bill did not come up for a vote in the last session of Congress and is almost certain to go nowhere this session, with Republicans controlling the House, Senate and White Hoise. Democrats hope to use the legislation to highlight Republican opposition to it, much as they have done with legislation to ban military style, semi-automatic guns. The last major gun safety legislation signed into law was in 2022, when the bipartisan Safer Communities Act was passed following the deadly mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.