CaptionThe grassroots community organization, ACORN, is fighting for a new law it says will save lives.
"Stop the Bullet" is a campaign that would make it harder for felons to buy ammunition from stores.
When you buy a gun, gun shops have to run a background check first to make sure you're not a convicted felon.
Although it is also illegal for convicted felons to buy bullets, a background check is not required. As it stands now, gun shops aren't required to ask any questions before selling bullets, as long as the buyer is 18 and can present identification.
Community organizer for the local NC ACORN group, The Rev. Melvin Whitley, says it's too easy for criminals to buy ammo, and he plans to close that loophole.
ACORN'S initiative would expand the law to include ammunition, and may even include a requirement for bullet permits.
"The problem with the law is that it allows criminals to have access to bullets. And it's the bullets that's killing us," according to Whitley.
But gun shop owners disagree.
They feel it's just another way organizations are trying to take away their Second Amendment rights.
"We have to make it clear we are not talking about gun control, we're talking about bullets," said Durham City Council Member Howard Clement III.
Whitley stated his case before the Durham City Council Thursday in hopes that the council will add it to its legislative agenda. The council's legislative committee will determine whether the initiative has legs.
Whitley hopes to get the bill passed in a year.
According to the National Sports Shooting Foundation, at least 18 states have tried to pass laws to stamp bullets with serial numbers or tax individual bullets. None have passed.
Learn More About Bullet Serialization
A bill requiring serial numbers on bullets failed the Kentucky State House this year. See Bill
New York lawmakers proposed bullet control legislation in 2007. Read More
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Comments
By DDS -- NRA Life Member on 12/05 10:16 AM
I have an idea they could try. How about keeping these convicted felons in prison until they are no longer a threat to the community. Last I heard, bullets were kind of hard to get in prison.
Perhaps I’m being selfish, but it seems like it would be a more reasonable approach to inconvenience our criminal population than to keep picking on the law abiding.
Just a thought.
By kj on 12/05 10:17 AM
you have GOT to be kidding me! what a waste of time and money. this law will only affect law-abiding citizens who purchase ammunition for hunting, shooting sports and self-defense. there are thousands of ways for a felon to obtain ammunition (and guns for that matter) and skirt this piece of ineffective feel-good legislation. this bill only serves the political careers of rev. whitley and his cronies in the durham city council.
do you think durham even has the capability to process permits for legal ammunition consumers? no way.
if the city really wanted to curb violence and crime, it could start by filling the vacancies in the Durham PD and by paying its officers a competitive salary. in the meantime, we need more trained armed citizens.
By KC on 12/05 10:49 AM
Criminals don’t buy ammo, why? Because they don’t practice. A box of ammo could easily last a criminal their entire career. This policy would do nothing more than burden the law a biding citizen and the retailer, plus don’t forget the increase in cost added to the tax payers for funding whatever government agency that would have to supervise the whole process.
By Mike Glaser on 12/05 10:59 AM
The Founding Fathers recognized that for a representative republic like America to thrive in liberty, the people must be possessed of self-discipline. When some of the people demonstrate that they are incapable of handling freedom without causing harm to their fellow citizens, the vultures of tyranny inevitably begin to circle. Yes, liberty will always be abused by some, and there will inevitably be those like Mr. Clement, Rev. Melvin Whitley, and ACORN salivating in the wings, waiting for an excuse to usurp yet more freedom, even as they arrogantly lie about their ultimate goals ("We have to make it clear we are not talking about gun control, we’re talking about bullets,” said Durham City Council Member Howard Clement III).
American did not achieve her greatness by bleating “safety first,” but rather, “live free or die.” So be it, Mr. Clement, Rev. Whitley, and others of your ilk.
By TSgt B on 12/05 11:44 AM
SO ACORN is not stisfied with helping to throw the election, eh? Now they want to take their policies the represent a very small minority and impose them upon the masses. I wonder what the good Reverend Whitley and company think of the death penalty? I think I can guess easily enough. You wouldn’t give rabid puppy to your child, would you? Then why not give the criminal element the full measure of the law. This just one more example of the communist left to totally destroy Freedom. Will we now see a run on bullet and ammunition sales? Take my advice, and learn to cast your own and reload. Where will the Durham council get the funding to implement this idiocy? Why take even more police officers off the street to run an asinine program like this? Why aren’t you people throwing these morons out of office?
By adam on 12/05 12:31 PM
This would only succeed in hurting the local community. It would reduce sales of ammunition with the city causing people to either go to a neighboring city or order online. Also there would be additional costs to local government to implement these measures.
Let Mr. Clement know how you feel:
http://www.durhamnc.gov/council/clement.cfm
By SK AR-10 on 12/05 12:37 PM
These “Community Organizers” are going to be the downfall of America. Clearly, every community organizer really have no clue about life outside of their ghetto. They should experience diversity by going to a more rural location.
By Peter J. Merkin on 12/05 12:38 PM
“ACORN” should not be suggesting any changes in laws. They have aided and abetted votor fraud on a massive scale. They have no credibility.
By NH on 12/05 12:43 PM
They really just need to leave it alone. There are too many laws out there as is making it difficult for law abiding citizens to enjoy the sport or to be able to legally protect themselves. This is just another attempt to pass a law that will likely not inhibit criminals in the least and hinder law abiding citizens. Thank you libtards.
By mike w. on 12/05 01:40 PM
hmmm let’s see.
Felons are already prohibited from buying, owning, possessing, and carrying firearms yet they do so anyway.
They’re already prohibited from buying ammo, as the article states.
Murder, assault, robbery, rape, burglary and other felonious acts are already illegal, yet laws against such acts don’t keep people from committing them.
“The problem with the law is that it allows criminals to have access to bullets. And it’s the bullets that’s killing us.”
NO, it’s the CRIMINALS who’re killing people. Funny thing how people are responsible for their actions eh? It’s not the gun, not the bullet, not (insert random inanimate object here) IT’S THE CRIMINALS.
By Marlin on 12/05 04:50 PM
These clowns and Paul Helmke (of the Brady Hangun Control Inc. group)realised after the Heller decision was anounced that they had to find a different way to outlaw guns and gun use. Since the ammunition isn’t specifically covered in the 2nd Amendment they have recently stated that that is the way to continue to try to disarm Americans. They also noted that the only ones who should have guns is the GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES (police, military, politicians, ect.) and that the gun owners have not won. Obama, Pelosi, and Reid are going to do everything they can to assist in disarming Americans as well. By the way, most people have no idea that Paul Helmke has a FFL license. He’s one of three people in Washington DC who has never been denied guns because he is licensed to buy and sell them. He has always had the right to carry concealed handguns in Washington DC, but wants to make sure none of the “little people” (US COMMON FOLK) have that right! Remember that everytime some liberal says they aren’t going to take your guns away...or bullets....or civil rights! First disarm, then order the citizens to do whatever government wants them to do, that’s the plan! That’s the CHANGE OBAMA MEANT!
By Marlin on 12/05 05:02 PM
You might also want to investigate how many of the anti-gun senators and representitives are licensed to carry concealed handguns in their states. Since they are licensed in their states, they also can carry concealed in the Federal Government Buildings like the Senate and the House. Look at the judges especially hard since they have concealed carry even in the court rooms!
Funny how they DEMAND their 2nd Amendment Rights, then add on federal body gaurds, and still vote to deny the common citizen, who votes them into office, their Constitutional Rights.
These lower level liberal politicians are the same way. They are gun onwers, licensed in many cases to carry concealed but want to deny you the rights they use daily! In Chicago, the city council passed a special law which allowed the council members to carry concealed even in anti-gun Chicago! CALLED THE COUCIL A “LAW ENFORCEMENT BODY” TO GET AROUND THEIR OWN ANTI-GUN LAWS!
ANY POLITICIAN who wants to deny me my 2nd Amendment Rights will NEVER get my vote for anything at all!
If you don’t trust me to be an armed American voter, then you do not want my vote! If more gun owners felt that way and acted on that belief, then we wouldn’t have 20,000 plus gun laws to use against us!
Time was a person was EXPECTED to own a gun, use it in self defense, and was looked on as a strange person who refused to take responsibility for their own safety if they refused to be armed (even if minimumly as a .22 revolver would be). Now, they assume a gun owner is some kind of wild eyed, knuckle dragging freak!
That’s okay though...my knuckles may drag in a liberal’s eyes, but they are free and I don’t have to beg for government’s permission to go anywhere!
By Redhawk on 12/05 05:05 PM
Here we go again; another Obamunist trying to take away our civil and human rights we have as a citizen. Just because blacks commit 80% of violent crimes and blacks are largely the victims of these crimes in the inner cities is no reason to try and find another way to take away the Second Amendment just because blacks like to proclaim themselves victims. As a Native American, I can spell “repatriation” and these Acorn nut cases like Mr. Whitley should either endorse and utilize the civil rights as Americans or get out and go somewhere like Rowanda where civil and human rights are nonexistent. As for me, Melvin Whitley can kiss my tail feathers ... and my Glock!!
By Dave on 12/05 05:36 PM
Tell ya what, ACORN...I’ll vote for that, IF you require that everybody who votes has to pass a background check, too, okay?
By Mike on 12/05 05:57 PM
WOW.. Just wow.. The same people who signed up dead people, cats, and offensive line for the cowboys to vote.. Want to crap on the constitution. Color me shocked..
By Steve on 12/05 06:21 PM
Since it is a well established fact, cars kill many more people than guns, how about you have to show identification before you can buy a can of oil or a gallon of gas. If we can keep criminals from driving, then they can’t run over somebody in a crosswalk.
The idea of identifying bullets is just as absurd. What would keep the criminal from just leaving behind an expended cartridge from someone else’s gun? Or, why bother leaving anything behind? The idea that you want to interrupt and make difficult the lives of law abiding men and women is just more bullcrap. This from the very people who can’t have a legal election, and have to screw up the righteous vote? From those who willingly allow abortions and say it is legal? They have killed more innocent people than any military vet has with collateral damage, and they want to control my life. I got 2 words for them, and it ain’t “happy motoring”.
By SPRguy on 12/05 08:04 PM
We already have laws on the books to handle just about every eventuality & there will always be an element in any society that does not conform/obey. Does this mean that we should effectively punish all the rest, the majority, because a few cause trouble? I would hope not.
Who actually thinks that for some reason criminals will “scared straight” because of an additional law or two.
A bit off topic; I wasn’t afraid of a terrorist attack beofre 9/11 and nor am I since, what scares me is the the Patriot Act, Homeland Security, Fema & Libtards.
By JOE on 12/05 09:15 PM
The problem with acorn is their nuts! (LOL)
By Fred on 12/05 09:44 PM
Maybe the idea should be something like “Enforce gun laws already on the books instead of imposing more draconian laws on the law abiding citizens.” Criminals are not going to stop committing crimes because they would have to use illegal black market ammo. When committing major crimes, minor inconveniences such as “gun free zones”, unlicensed or black market firearms, or even black market ammunition is not going to deter a criminal. The only deterrents that work against criminals is the possibility of an armed victim or severe and harsh penalties that are enforced for crimes committed with weapons. Lets stop early parole, “good behavior” credits, and start enforcing our laws we already have.
“Gun Control? It’s the best thing you can do for crooks and gangsters,” Gravano said. “I want you to have nothing. If I’m a bad guy, I’m always gonna have a gun. Safety Locks? You will pull the trigger with a lock on, and I’ll pull the trigger. We’ll see who wins.”
--Sammy “the Bull” Gravano, the Mafia turncoat, when asked about gun control in an interview in Vanity Fair.
By stan on 12/05 10:15 PM
this is a dumb law what will keep people from going to other states or internet from buying the ammo..this guy need to get a clue and a gym membership mcdonals is going to kill him not the bullets..
By Ron on 12/05 10:39 PM
Lets think this through. What kills and injuries more people, guns or cars? What is used more in crimes, guns or cars? What is more deadly, guns or cars? Who owns more guns, good citizens or criminals? Who owns more cars, good citizens or criminals? If the government makes people go through a background check to buy ammo, shouldn’t it be a requirement for a citizen to go through a background check to buy gas for his/her car? How ridiculous can the government get?
By Lance on 12/05 10:47 PM
Can’t buy syringes?!?!?! I can go down to the local farm store and buy 50 bags (5 per bag) of them if I so desire!!! In different sizes!!!
Johnny Moore...bad drug deal...BANG! Hmmm.
Guns cannot work without bullets (properly called ammunition), therefore IT IS GUN CONTROL!!!
Oh, did you notice how the gun store owners were treated like the criminals?????
9x19mm; .45 ACP; 5.56(x45) NATO, SS109 projectile; 7.62(x51) NATO; do I win something????
What’s amazing to me is that I don’t see a single comment here that supports this lunacy.
These people can’t see the trees for the forest!!! They see the big problem but miss the individual reasons that there is a problem. Furthermore, they deny that the ONLY effective way to deal with the bad trees is to cut them down and burn them.
By Old Shooter on 12/05 11:14 PM
The ACORN guys are (wait for it...) NUTS! The organization has abrogated any right it may have had, to be taken seriously by any law abiding person in the US, with their widespread condoning of, and engagement in, voter fraud over the last decade or more. They obviously do not care about the public, nor the civil rights of our citizens, nor about our consitituion. It was widely predicted as Obama’s first move after getting elected, that he would attempt to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes with a series of ammunition bans, rather than openly trying to ban guns. He didn’t even wait for the election, he just got his buddies (I wonder if Rev. Whitley is one of those he trained?) at ACORN to start on it now. It is clearly an “undercover” move by the anti-gun crowd. Tell me, if it is illegal for felons to have guns, and these laws actually worked, why would we need to control ammunition? Law-abiding felons would have nothing to shoot it with. The fact is that anti-gun laws DON’T work, and never have, and anti-ammunition laws won’t either. As usual, only the law abiding guys like me would follow them, and I"M not a threat to the public peace! Like I said, they’re NUTS!
By jimmyjet on 12/06 12:06 AM
Wow! So Acorn, fresh from it’s successful fraudulent voter registration drive, is now going to save us all from ourselves.
It seems that it would be much easier just to pass a law declaring that committing a crime with a firearms is illegal. What? There already is such a law? And N.C. folks ignore it? SCOFFLAWS! I PROTEST!
Remove minorities and drugs from the equation and firearms crime would be a statistical anomaly. I wonder what the good Reverend, (after copying the names off tombstones for the next voter registration), would have to say about that.
By raybury on 12/06 12:09 AM
Inconvenience in obtaining ammo for legit gunowners leads to lack of ammo.
Lack of ammo leads to lack of practice leads to Mumbai cops uncertain of their ability to shoot terrorists who, unsurprisingly, were well-stocked with ammo.
Lack of practice leads to lack of gun stores due to no range fees for the many stores that make it by selling range time for practice leads to fewer legal options to obtain guns, while illegal options to obtain guns are the primary source of guns for criminals, not stores that fastidiously follow the law on background checks.
Lack of gun stores leads to lack of legal gun owners leads to fewer reasons for criminals to fear their victims will be armed leads to higher incidence of more violent crimes.
More crime victims means more support for victimization whores like ACORN.
By Kevin on 12/06 12:15 AM
“Right now, the only requirements in the state of North Carolina is that you be 18 or older… and have a picture ID. It doesn’t even require you to have a… driver’s license. And you can go and purchase all the bullets you want.”
Perhaps we should bring back the poll tax as well? How about restricting voting rights to property owners?
“We have to make it clear we are not talking about gun control, we’re talking about bullets,”
More to the point, you are talking about CONTROL. You have set yourself up as a controller of men. You believe you are wiser and more compassionate than your fellow man. You believe the great unwashed masses simply are too stupid, too unenlightened, to know what is good for them.
By nauer on 12/06 12:48 AM
ACORN is a criminal organization. They are facing FELONY charges in several States! That these clowns have the audacity to continue to spout their hate is unbelievable!
By Woodpiggie on 12/06 02:24 AM
Political correctness aside, I see it as a reasonable assumption that the present level of urban Negro/Mexican gang violence (which accounts for most gun violence in urban America ) is at least in part, a product of genetic selection mediated by liberal social policies. Easy welfare and inadequate incarceration of criminals has resulted in several generations of illegitimacy , with the most aggressive males sireing the most offspring with the most irresponsible females. The resulting devolution, from fully Human behavior that we would expect is pretty much what we are seeing.
Gun and/or ammo restrictions so comprehensive and draconian as to effectively degun America’s battered third worldish cities and “hoods” will only result in coroners reports citing slit throats, beheadings and clubings as causes of death of murder victims, as opposed to gunshot wounds.
I’m very pesimistic about reversing this socially toxic trend that is suffocating American society and damaging race relations, given the lid of political correctiness that is circumventing even honest discussion of the situation. Corrupt, self serving politicos and their liberal media lapdogs are seeing to it that no problem solving can ever happen here.
So go right ahead Rev. Organizer, incrementally disarm your law abiding citizens and correspondingly empower your crackhead street thugs. The nation needs as exemplars a few glittering jewels of urban “minority” legislative loonacy with predictable consequences.
The realists among us will declare: “ FROM MY COLD DEAD FINGERS”!!!
By Charles on 12/06 06:00 AM
Wonder what the Deacons for defence would have made of this clown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deacons_for_Defense_and_Justice
But Massa liberal dosn’t want the darkies and Peasants to have firearms,they might start to think that they don’t need to stay on the liberal plantation
and acorn needs to be the subject of a RICO suit
By Marvin H on 12/06 08:17 AM
Guess what ACORN. Banning bullets will not protect YOU when the SHTF. Do it. Keep pushing. Go ahead, make our day.
By Obviousman on 12/06 02:02 PM
“‘We have to make it clear we are not talking about gun control, we’re talking about bullets,’ said Durham City Council Member Howard Clement III.”
Now, I’m not advocating that anyone stab this moron in the head for mendacity—just that they punch him behind the ear several times while holding an open boxcutter.
Hey, that’s an IMPORTANT DISTINCTION!
By XD-40 on 12/06 02:24 PM
This has nothing to do with criminals; it is part of a strategy to continue the disarmament of law-abiding citizens so that the government can more easily morph into a totalitarian state.
By JD on 12/06 03:34 PM
Yet another gun control proposal based on fighting crime...Criminals will always have guns- laws are scraps of paper to them. There are exactly two things that can control crime- lock up the criminals, or kill them. Making more scraps of paper that burden the law-abiding will not work, nor has any hope to. Only a moron would think otherwise.
But then again, gun control really isn’t about crime control, is it? It is about establishing the supremacy of an all-powerful government where we can all be comrades under Oprah’s “One”......
By Smitch270 on 12/06 04:47 PM
What the hell is this??? I have an idea...lets tatoo on thier forehead “FELONS” Make them get the Acorn ID card. I can not believe what I just heard!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe if a criminal is convicted of murder, what about Eye for an Eye! So what I have heard before the past election Acorn wanted to register all including felons to vote because it is thier right. Maybe all of the rights of the felon on parole should have no rights for twenty years and in that twenty year time, if no crime or drug use they can pitition the court for thier rights to be reinstated.
By Kody on 12/06 07:12 PM
Epic failure. Love people with non linear thinking and in-ability to call on past events for solid proof of the out come of an event. Banning stuff has only ever affected the law abiding citizens, that is a no brainer. This is the same reason they don’t just ban guns, because criminals would still get there hands on guns while the lawful citizen gives theirs up and thus does not have it for self defense. Bullets will be no different my friend. They can get them from other countries, black markets, or many other forms if they really want it so do yourself a favor and plug your nose and ears and blow real hard and hope it dislodges your head from your rear end. Stupid thing ever. Whats next, banning kitchen knifes because they can be used to murder, i would doubt it.
By Woodpiggie on 12/07 02:45 AM
I’m sure that the airheads pushing this idiocy will take pleasure in knowing that when a crackhead thug enters their home and does them in, he has broaken yet one more law, illegal ammo possession!
By Gary A. Shaw on 12/07 02:32 PM
Wait, isn’t this the same ACORN that is under investigation for manufacturing voter polls? Yeah, let’s listen to them. This subject is laughable and wouldn’t be worthy of comment except that some idiot now thinks that because “the anointed one” is in office nationally they can come up with all sorts of stupid ways to harrass shooters. These people find no problem with lying cheating or bullying to get their way because they obviously know whats best for us even if we don’t. Blaming ammunition for violence is like blaming cars for DUI drivers, blaming planes for hijacking and blaming spoons for Rosie Odonell being fat. Oh and blaming politics for stupidity… on the other hand?
By Vernon Jenewein on 12/07 08:35 PM
Look back in history. It was the colonists that passed ammuntion control, powder, shot, lead etc so that people could not sell to certain Indian tribes. Then they made it illegal to sell to French Traders, because they would trade to the Indians the powders, shot, lead and so forth. It was done so many years ago, and it was of no avail then. There are just too many ways a criminal, who DOES NOT obey the law, can circumvent getting ammo in a legal means. It’s kind of like putting a legal ban on rocks, becuase someone other than David might use them against someone other than Golliath.
By anon on 12/08 08:52 AM
Wow, that was painful to listen too.
“Bullets are killing us"---?
No, CRIMINALS are killing people.
Libs prefer to go after guns and ammo and not the criminals.
Make laws until your blue in the face, but the way of a criminal is to >BREAK THE LAW<.
Get it?
Keep the violent felons behind bars and don’t punish the innocent, law abiding public.
By Mark on 12/08 12:58 PM
There’s a reason zero states out of 18 passed any ammunition laws - they do not make sense.
“We’re not against cars, just the tires - do anything you want with the cars, but we’ll restrict the tires, not the cars.”
Doesn’t that sound dumb? It’s the same thing.
By Vernon Jenewein on 12/08 09:33 PM
Arm the populace, teach them good and proper firearm safety, and do like Vermont, and Alaska (I believe there is also a 3rd such state), where there is no gun laws except you shall not use a firearm in committing a crime. Let it go at that, and HEAVILY fine/jail the offenders for long periods of time who DO an offense with a weapon. With the greater part of the population now not only tuned into gun safety, responsibility, range etiquette, and encouraged to further their firearm skills at local firearm ranges, the crooks, rapists, and other criminals of violent crime will seek other avenues lest they find themselves on the business end of the .44 or 9mm staring them down.
In the 3 states that have the least amount of firearm laws, they also rank 48th 49th and 50th in least amount of violent crime. Why won’t the legislators and really concerned politicians take notice, and see that gun control is just not a viable means of cutting down crime. Spend money helping to arm people, and teach them and you will go further at reducing the % of violent crime in America. I carry a pistol because I can’t carry a cop. And as a former Deputy Sheriff, I sincerely believe that those who protect themselves and learn to defend themselves will be contributors, EVEN in the psychological sense to the betterment of of the general population. When seconds count police are just minutes away.
By Peter on 12/09 06:15 AM
Typical left-wing idiocy
By john on 12/09 07:48 PM
What everyone forgets is that the killers with the highest victim tally use knives. Fire a shot and see all the attention (and witness) that result. Murderers with knives are the least likely to be arrested. Go to a web site that features serial killers and you’ll see what I mean. They call them serial killers rather than murderers only because they get away with it so often. Forcing criminals to move from knives to guns is not progress.
By f pembroke on 12/11 10:28 AM
This is just another attempt to disarm law-abiding citizens. Gun control hasn’t been able to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Nobody is stupid enough to believe that bullet-control would be any more effective.
By Marvin L Foushee on 12/17 08:21 PM
You could have driver’s licenses with internal magnetic codes that you could swipe when you purchase ammo, or for that matter, merchandise, etc., that identifies you as a non-felon, a registered gun owner, or a person in good credit standing in the community. A magnetic bar code scanner to read your driver’s license [♪♪—♫♫]; what will they think of next.
By Marvin L Foushee on 12/17 08:43 PM
“When seconds count, police are just minutes away.”
Sometimes, when seconds count, police are years away. I had an interstate burgulary crime against me in 2002—one of those serial killer, U-TN2GOD, Virginia license plate crimes and death threat break-ins where two items were stolen, and the Jew Klux Klan at the Wake County Sheriff’s Department were mobbed up with the federal parolee syndicate who committed the crime and didn’t do a thing about it.
Now, Nancy Cooper gets dropped off in a serial killer dump site wearing nothing but a sports bra and one earring. Isn’t that a strange coincidence?
By Marvin L Foushee on 12/17 09:25 PM
There is probably a legion of Jude Klux Klan doctors that want to tap Brad Cooper on the kneecap and declared his 10 million dollar lawsuit against the DA’s Office and The Town of Cary a danger to himself and to other people.
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