On Monday Chicago Democrat state Rep. Sonya Harper filled HB 6615 that would require that all handgun ammunition kept, sold, or used in the state of Illinois starting in 2018 would have to have serial numbers, anyone in possession of unserialized ammo would face misdemeanor charges.  Harper’s bill would also establish a state registry for ammunition and sales with the Illinois State Police and impose a half a penny tax per round on ammo sold in the Illinois.

The synopsis of the bill:

 Provides that beginning January 1, 2018, all handgun ammunition that is manufactured, imported into the State for sale or personal use, kept for sale, offered or exposed for sale, sold, given, lent, or possessed shall be serialized. Provides that beginning January 1, 2018, any person who manufactures, causes to be manufactured, imports into the State for sale or personal use, keeps for sale, offers or exposes for sale, or who gives or lends any handgun ammunition that is not serialized is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor. Provides that beginning January 1, 2018, any person who possesses in any public place any handgun ammunition that is not serialized is guilty of a Class C misdemeanor. Provides exceptions. Provides that beginning January 1, 2018, the Department of State Police shall maintain a centralized registry of all reports of handgun ammunition transactions reported to the Department in a manner prescribed by the Department. Provides that information in the registry, upon proper application for that information, shall be furnished to peace officers and authorized employees of the Department of State Police or to the person listed in the registry as the owner of the particular handgun ammunition. Provides that the Department of State Police shall adopt rules relating to the assessment and collection of end-user fees in an amount not to exceed $0.005 per round of handgun ammunition or per bullet, in which the accumulated fee amount may not exceed the cost to pay for the infrastructure, implementation, operational, enforcement, and future development costs of these provisions. Effective January 1, 2018, except some provisions effective immediately.

There have been more than 570 murders so far in Chicago this year, with well over 3,000 wounded. This past weekend saw 8 people killed and another 40 wounded.

This horrific amount of crime is almost all the result of young black men shooting and killing or wounding other young blacks with illegal guns in a city that used to ban handgun ownership until that was found to be unconstitutional by the Courts. Chicago continues a near de facto ban on gun stores within city limits by way of zoning ordinances after the Courts again found the city’s outright ban on them unconstitutional.  Chicago is so anti-gun that Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Amazon.com have teamed up to keep little kids from getting toys in the city, right as everyone gears up for the Christmas shopping season.

Making hunters, the states tens of thousands of concealed carry permit holders, or any other law-abiding gun owner put serial numbers on their ammunition won’t do diddley squat about the Chicago’s gang and drug violence problem.

If Rep. Harper wants to do something about Chicago’s(or Rockford’s) crime problem do something about the lack of fathers in these punk kids lives, do something about a culture that promotes violence, fix the Chicago court system so that shooting suspects aren’t back out on the street before the inks dry, that and so much more would do wonders for Chicago’s violent streets; putting serial numbers on everyone’s ammo is just a great way to get another Illinois anti-gun law squashed by the Courts for being unconstitutional.