National Ammo Day—The Prequel

February 26, 2003
11:25 AM CST

Those who would confiscate guns from private ownership are faced with a couple of unpleasant facts (apart from the intransigence of gun owners, that is).  In the first place, guns in the U.S. are so universal as to make their confiscation a nigh-impossible task.  In the second place, even if a ban on gun manufacturing were possible, guns are hardy things—if properly maintained, a gun can remain effective for hundreds of years.

But without a supply of ammunition, a gun just becomes an expensive club—and ammunition, by definition, can be used up.

Needless to say, gun-grabbers, the loathsome bastards, are not unaware of this.  Would-be president Al Gore [who?] actually boasted to fellow-asshole Bill Bradley in the 2000 Democratic primary debates that he was going to “tax ammunition out of existence.” Fortunately, the storm of disapproval made him back off quickly, replacing his original words with the weasel qualifier that of course, he didn’t mean hunting ammunition, but that nasty handgun stuff.  The lying little shit.

Anyway, the point is that ammunition is the one point where gun owners are really vulnerable.  Only this year, some jerkwater Democrat politician in (where else?) California wanted to tax ammunition at 5 cents per round, “to pay for healthcare costs associated with gun violence.” Of course.

So if you only have a box or so of 9mm for your handgun, and a couple boxes of .30-30, you’re in deep shit, potentially.

Yes, I know that handloading takes away this danger, at least for a while—but it should be noted that bulk powder is the easiest commodity to ban, and all cartridge brass wears out eventually.  Handloaders are actually extraordinarily vulnerable to the tactics of the ungodly.

There is a simple solution to this:  all gun owners should buy at least a box of ammo per month, and if you burn up a box at the range in practice, then replace that box with two more.  This would mean that each year, you’d accumulate at least 200-odd rounds of “spare” ammo.  Over five years, that’s a thousand rounds of ammo.

In the case of .22 LR ammo, it is my firm conviction that no household should have anything less than 500 rounds at hand.  A thousand is better; 10,000 best of all.  And for those interested, a standard G.I. 20mm ammo can holds exactly 5,000 rounds of .22LR, unboxed.  My personal goal is to have at least 1,000 rounds of ammo handy, per gun, at any given time (a lot more .22 LR, of course).  I’m not there yet, but I’m working on it.

The end result is that if all gun owners have a few thousand rounds of ammo in their closet or gun safe, the effect of a punitive tax on ammunition would be meaningless—there would be so much ammo out there (roughly two hundred and fifty billion rounds) that even an outright ban on ammo production would have no effect for twenty years, by which time we could have voted all these loathsome bastards out of office.

Remember:  Buy at least one box of ammo, and preferably two, each month.  It’s $15 - $20 out of your monthly budget—half the cost of cable TV, and ten times more important.  And if you have a gun in a vulnerable caliber (eg. “assault rifle"-type or handgun ammo such as 7.62x39mm or 9mm respectively), buy five extra boxes per month.

Better still, places like Sportsman’s Guide and Cheaper Than Dirt (CTD especially at their website) generally have deals on bulk ammo purchases.  Take advantage of them.  CTD, for example, usually has Federal “American Eagle” .223 Rem ammo on sale at under $4 per box of 20—an unbelievable deal.  Let’s support our U.S.-based ammo manufacturers.  To do less would be unpatriotic; but if your budget is tight, consider the Sellier & Bellot stuff at $1.67 per 20.

Oh, and finally:  If you don’t belong to a Second Amendment organization like the NRA, GOA (my personal favorite), Second Amendment Sisters (for the Real Women among us) or your local state’s gun owners’ group, join one now.