Prop 63 background checks on ammo still a source of confusion

EL CENTRO — A month after the state’s Proposition 63 was implemented to do instant background checks on customers buying ammunition there is still some confusion.

Proposition 63 was passed back 2016 by 63 percent of California voters who authorized the state to do instant background checks on customers buying ammunition.

Voters in Imperial County passed the measure by a margin of almost two to one. The law took effect July 1.

The background checks cost $1 every time a purchase is made. Exactly how the process will work remains a mystery — even to gun store owners.

J. Robert Hayes, owner of The Gun Shop in El Centro, said the background checks on ammunition will accomplish nothing, as proven by the mass shooting in Gilroy this past Sunday. The alleged assailant was reported to have made his purchases in Nevada.

About 99 percent of ammunition is used for recreation, such as competitions and shooting cans, not to kill or shoot someone.

“Background checks do nothing,” he said.

The background checks on ammunition is a placebo effect lawmakers use when trying to win re-election by telling the public, “See what I am doing,” said Hayes, a former Assemblyman himself representing San Fernando.

“These are stupid laws that don’t do anything,” he said. “What we need to do find the reason for the violence. I don’t have an answer, but I know it’s not what we are doing.”

Ben Pacrem, range division manager of Border Tactical, said because the shop is very small, the new rule will not have as much of an impact as larger stores could experience.

“We have seen a decline in sales, but I am not sure to what degree” he said.

The system would check to see if each buyer is a felon, and if they are a registered owner of the model gun for which they are buying ammo. If they are not, they can’t buy the ammo.

While most times the ammunition background checks only cost $1, but there are times where a customer will have to pay $19 for what is called part two, he said.

If this happens there will be about a 10-day waiting period for the customer to get the ammunition since the background check will take longer, Pacrem said.

He said the background checks on ammunition are like a mini version what a gun buyer goes through.

He said he also wishes information on the new law was more visible, so customers would not be surprised when purchasing ammunition, but he added that, in most cases, the background only takes about five minutes.

“We always try to promote safe and responsible gun ownership,” Pacrem said.

Chris Salgado with the Imperial Valley Rifle and Pistol Association, said there has been problems with the new legislation where some buyers are having to wait 45 minutes to three hours for the background checks.

Skip Waycott, president and chief range safety officer of the Imperial Valley Rifle and Pistol Association, said the legislation will not do a single thing to deter crime or stop it from occurring.

“I think it’s a placebo, a feel-good piece of legislation,” Waycott said. “It is intended to say to voters we are doing something.

“It will not solve anything,” he said. “We need sensible laws.”

He said alcohol, tobacco and even vehicles kill a lot more people than guns do, and he thinks the background checks on ammunition could be the beginning of an effort to take away guns from gun owners.

“People need to exercise common sense,” he said. “It’s a tragedy when something like this happens in Gilroy.”