California Attorney General Rob Bonta continues to defend the state’s mandatory background checks on ammunition purchases after a federal judge found it unconstitutional, but while trying to keep the law in place he’s also attempting to jack up the cost of those background checks by 400%.  

NSSF’s Larry Keane says Bonta is officially proposing to raise the current background check fee from $1 to $5, despite the fact that U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez has declared the law unconstitutional. 

With the ammunition background check and fee scheme remaining in place, even as Rhode v. Bonta works through the courts, Bonta hasn’t had his fill and isn’t letting his foot off the gun control gas pedal.

In an announcement posted on the CalDOJ’s website on Aug. 23, AG Bonta proposed jacking up the ammunition check fee cost from one dollar to five dollars, a 400 percent increase that all law-abiding Californians will bear each and every time they want to buy ammunition.

“As authorized by Penal Code section 30370, subdivision (e), the Department’s current regulations established a $1.00 fee for a Standard Ammunition Eligibility Check (SAEC) and $1.00 fee for a COE Verification check. This fee has not been sufficient to cover the Department’s operating costs for the ammunition authorization program,” CalDOJ website states. “The proposed regulation raises the fee for a SAEC and COE Verification check from $1.00 to $5.00.”

Bonta is holding a 45-day public comment period that ends on Oct. 8, 2024. That’s obviously political theater. If you believe the AG will actually take into consideration any comments from law-abiding Californians who oppose this blatant nickel-and-diming of their Second Amendment rights, I have a Golden Gate bridge to sell you. All of this while he does nothing to prosecute and get tough on the criminals who actually perpetuate criminal gun violence.

Under California law, residents are not allowed to purchase ammunition online or even out-of-state. All purchases must be made in person, and a background check must take place every time. As Keane says, the law has hardly stopped violent criminals from getting their hands on ammunition (any more than all of California’s other gun-related laws prevent criminals from illegally obtaining guns). It has, however, imposed a huge burden on lawful gun owners; from the large number of false denials that have blocked legal gun owners from purchasing ammo to the 140-mile drive that residents in places like Needles have to make since they can’t drive ten minutes across the border into Arizona to buy their bullets close to home.

Though “Saint” Benitez ruled the law unconstitutional, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals did Bonta a solid by staying the decision and allowing the law to be enforced while the lower court ruling is appealed. And even if the public comments are overwhelmingly in opposition, Bonta will make it even more expensive to exercise a fundamental civil right. It already costs more than $1,000 to obtain a carry permit in some jurisdictions in California, which gives you the right to carry (at the moment, anyway) almost nowhere. Now Bonta wants to make it more expensive and unaffordable to regularly train with a firearm. That’s not a “gun safety” policy in my eyes, but then, when anti-gunners like Bonta use the phrase it is really nothing more than an attempt to rebrand their real intent: gun (and gun owner) control.