California's mandatory ammunition background check could impact gun store owners

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The purchase of ammunition just got a little more intrusive for California gun owners.

"It's another background check...more money...more taxes and it ends up being a waste in my opinion," said Dacri Burdan.

California voters passed Proposition 63 almost three years ago which in part requires background checks for anyone wishing to buy bullets.

RELATED: New California laws in effect beginning July 1

Ammo sales at the Firing Line in Clovis were uneventful Monday.

Store owner Jake Belemjian says most of his customers replenished their supply before the new law went into effect.

"People have purchased so much ammunition over the last six months in anticipation of this happening so for us it has not been a big deal," he said.

Advocates say the new law is meant to protect the public by keeping ammunition from getting into the wrong hands, but gun owners argue it's just one more way for the State to infringe on their Second Amendment right.

"Unfortunately who it effects is law-abiding citizens and that flies in the face of our constitution and our Second Amendment rights," said Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims.

RELATED: Ammunition sales surge ahead of California's mandatory background check

Mims says the new law does little to address illegal activity while it unfairly targets those who already follow the law.

"Right now in Fresno County we got about 16,000 concealed weapons holders...these are law-abiding citizens who are now going to be required to pay that tax, show their ID and unfortunately the people who should be controlled are the criminals and they have access to anything they want," she said.

"I think its another layer of the onion they're peeling back," Burdan said. "I think ultimately they want you to have no firearms and by making it harder and harder for law-abiding gun owners they get one step closer to that."

Others warn the law will send buyers across state lines for ammo and hurt California gun store owners in the process.

"They're clamping down with the jaws of life on dealers here but the reality is anybody who illegally brings ammunition here in the state can do it," said Belemjian.