Rep. O'Brien:
I am writing you to say I was extremely dismayed to hear today that you had cosponsored an ammunition serialization bill this year.
You have portrayed yourself to me in the past as a defender of firearms rights. Supporting - worse yet, sponsoring - legislation of this nature, which will do little to reduce or assist in the investigation of violent crime, yet which greatly increases the cost and burden of lawfully manufacturing and dealing in ammunition and owning and using a firearm, is not what I would expect from someone professing to be a defender of firearms rights.
The manufacture of serialized ammunition as required by this bill - where the serial number on the bullet and the shell casing must match, and all the serial numbers in a given box of ammunition must match - is an extremely expensive proposition, if it is even possible. Ammunition is a bulk commodity produced on high-speed automated machinery by the billions of rounds at low profit margins, not expensive, low-volume, high-profit-margin hand-assembled durable goods.
The ammunition manufacturing trade association NSSF has stated that serialization of ammunition is not practically feasible; requiring serialized ammunition is, essentially, an ammunition ban. Has anyone actually proven to you that it is even possible in practice (versus in the laboratory) to serialize ammunition in the manner you propose?
But let us assume for the sake of argument that it is possible...
Requiring ammunition be serialized will force major (read "expensive") changes in the manufacturing process - essentially, the scrapping and replacement of all existing commercial ammunition production equipment - and will force law-abiding firearm owners to spend even more money to arm themselves in their own defense, while creating a black market in unserialized ammunition for criminal use.
I see no limitation on the range of calibers that must be serialized. Do you intend that extremely inexpensive small calibers (.22LR, .17HMR) be serialized? That requirement could easily triple the cost of such popular ammunition due to the difficulty of serializing such small ammunition that is produced in such huge quantities.
Ammunition manufacturers will likely decide that the significant costs of serializing their product to comply with Washington law outweigh the market benefit from selling ammunition in Washington, and will simply stop selling ammunition in Washington. Again, the burden from this would fall primarily, if not solely, on law-abiding firearm owners. If such comes to pass, would you also criminalize a firearm owner going out-of-state to purchase ammunition that was no longer available in-state because it was not serialized?
I see no exception for hand-loaded ammunition. How would a firearm owner who reloads their own ammunition (as I do, to save money on practice ammunition) comply with this law? Do you simply wish to make it effectively illegal for individual citizens to save money by reloading their own ammunition? Doing so will actually reduce overall safety, as firearm owners will be less able to afford the regular practice that improves safe handling and safe, accurate shooting.
What of the many firearm owners who cast their own bullets? Do you wish to effectively ban that practice as well?
Would a private owner of ammunition be required to demand photo ID and report to the state whom he had sold some of his ammunition to, should he wish to dispose of ammunition he no longer wanted?
Another problem with serialization of ammunition is the ease with which the investigation of a crime could be interfered with. A criminal planning a firearm crime need only go to a shooting range and collect the expended brass from other shooters, then scatter it about the scene of their crime. Again, only law-abiding firearm owners suffer - now they will need to collect and destroy (if they cannot legally reload) all their brass or risk being investigated for a violent crime they did not commit.
Representative O'Brien, you told me you were a defender of firearms rights, and that you would work for me and my rights in Olympia. I trusted you to live up to that claim. I am sorry to put it in such strong terms, but I cannot see this bill as anything less than a cold betrayal of that trust.
Please withdraw this bill, or at the very least, remove your sponsorship and work to see it does not pass.
Thank you.
