The United Nations General Assembly will almost certainly approve a new global framework this fall for ammunition management. The novel plan was proposed in June and will be voted upon in September. The outcome, however, is considered by many to be a foregone conclusion, the vote itself a mere formality. From reducing dangerous stockpiles to adding serial numbers to ammunition, this scheme is just the latest angle of attack in the globalist war on guns.
Stockpiles, End Users, and the Meaning of ‘Is’
The UN General Assembly voted in February of 2022 to establish the Open-Ended Working Group on Conventional Ammunition, or OEWG, to create a “framework” to address the accumulation of stockpiles. The group completed that task and released its ammunition management plan in June of 2023.
Representatives from the NRA and the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturer’s Institute attended every OEWG meeting and advocated on behalf of American gun owners. The US delegation was receptive to their points and was successful in removing language that would have required individual end-user certificates and the serialization of all ammunition. Instead, the framework now focuses on government stockpiles and suggests that serialization should be “considered” for ammunition under national ownership. That said, the fact that these terms remain so vague makes it impossible to say specifically to whom they apply.
“It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” President Bill Clinton famously uttered those words while explaining to a grand jury back in 1998 how he wasn’t lying when he told his aides regarding Monica Lewinsky, “There’s nothing going on between us.”
“If ‘is’ means is and never has been, that is not – that is one thing,” he continued. “Now, if someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky, that is, asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true,” he added.
(Photo by Michael Kappeler/picture alliance via Getty Images)
The lesson here is that words matter, and the precise definition and context of those words matter even more. So what, exactly, does “stockpile” and “end user” mean in this plan? Thanks to the efforts of gun rights advocates present at the meetings, it’s limited to government-held ammunition, but that’s about as specific as it gets. Does an end user’s stockpile refer to a military facility housing millions of machine-gun rounds – or a single “extra” box of 9 mm in a local police station? And just as importantly, will it be modified later to apply to individuals?
“It could have been a much worse document to start the framework,” NRA International Affairs Director James Baranowski told Fox News Digital. “That said, it is never going away. It is a living document that will be modified. We are going to have to fight this every year.”
Showcasing Government Incompetence
If anyone needs more evidence that the people pulling the levers of power either just want to sabotage the armed citizen by any means necessary or don’t know the first thing about guns – or both – look no further than the ridiculous suggestion of serializing ammunition. The theory is simple: If bullets had serial numbers, solving gun crimes would be a breeze. At first, it might even sound logical – but as the late Herman Cain used to say, “the devil’s in the details.”
First, let’s strip all rights of access and privacy away and look only at whether this plan would even work. If the serial number is on the bullet itself – the part that ends up in the target – the chance that identifying mark would survive is slim. Bullets tend to deform upon impact, sometimes, depending on bullet design and what is hit, they even break apart. A casing serial number would be easy enough to overcome in most cases – just pick up the spent brass and carry it off. What, then, would this absurd idea that’s almost certainly going to fail in most situations cost us?
According to an ATF report from 2019, there were an average of 8.1 billion rounds of ammunition sold annually in the US alone. That’s more bullets per year than there are people alive in the world, and one can only assume with first-time gun purchases increasing over the last few years, that number has gone up as well.
Now imagine that each one had to be engraved or stamped with a serial number. This increases the time and cost on the manufacturer’s part, which increases the cost to the consumer. The extra step slows the production rate, dropping the supply while demand remains high – thus driving up prices even more.
Comedian Chris Rock once joked that if ammo cost $5,000 per round, there would be no innocent bystanders. Much like the other assumptions behind this plan and most gun control proposals in general, it only makes sense if you don’t think too much about it. The real effects of ammunition being prohibitively expensive – even if not quite to that $5,000 per round mark – aren’t so benign. This is a topic Liberty Nation covered not long ago. The hidden danger of an ammo shortage – or of it being so expensive that most folks just can’t afford it – is that whoever does have bullets won’t be using them to train.
Serialized Ammunition – Gun Control in All but Name
Imagine a gun owner effectively disarmed because he can’t afford ammunition. Now imagine that same person with just enough disposable income to purchase a box or two of cartridges and who still carries a loaded firearm in public. Maybe it’s an armed civilian. Maybe it’s a police officer. In either case, if there are fewer bullets to go around, the cutback will be in rounds sent down range in training, not those loaded in the weapon upon which that person’s life might depend. Effectively disarming people through lack of ammunition or leaving them armed but making them considerably more of a danger to themselves and those around them – which one’s worse?
Beyond the right to access and the need to train, there is an issue of privacy and protection from government malfeasance. How will ammunition be tracked? How would the authorities know who bought what bullets without some records? Presume that all the rounds in a single box share the same number – and that number is printed on the outside of the box. John Q. Public hands over his photo ID to the clerk at the gun store, who records his name and the serial number on the box of ammo. Now that’s entered into a database so that, should police retrieve a slug from a body, they can search the serial number and find Mr. Public’s name and address.
The Weimar Republic opted for gun registration in the 1920s. Naturally, those registries fell into the hands of the Nazis, who then used them to target so-called “enemies of the state” and eventually disarm the majority of society. An ammo registry would work just as well toward this end, if not better.
History shows what happens when governments get in the business of regulating the arms of the citizenry. When has it ever ended well for the common man? History also shows that it is the nature of government interference to grow rather than shrink. As the NRA’s James Baranowski said, “We are going to have to fight this every year.” And eventually, there’s a good chance the globalist gun grabbers will get their way.
