NY State Ammo Background Check set to begin September 13, 2023
A new date has been set for implementation of a background check when purchasing ammunition in NY State. The check was part of the Concealed Carry Improvement Act passed on July 1, 2022 following the Supreme Court’s decision favoring gun owners in the New York State Rifle Association v. Bruen case decided in June.
This ‘start date’ has been bumped up multiple times since it original implementation date of September 1, 2022. It remains to be seen if it materializes this September.
A requirement for “sellers of ammunition” to maintain a record of all Ammo sales actually went into effect September 1, 2022. A database to allow State Police to perform background checks on all gun and ammo sales was promised by NY when the so-called “safe” act was passed in January 2013. The state expected the FBI to permit usage of its NICS system but this was rejected by the FBI. Subsequently NY has not been able to develop its own database for such purposes. Nor has it had the manpower to operate the system.
Realize that there are two facets to the new regulations. First is the involvement of the State Police as a “middleman” for the purchase of a gun. FFL’s will no longer contact the FBI directly through it’s NICS check system. A gun dealer must go through the State Police. A new fee of $9.00 will be paid by the gun purchaser. There is no indication as to whether the process will be prolonged as a result of involving the State Police.
The second aspect of the new law requires a background check for the sale of all ammunition. Each transaction carries a new fee of $2.50 to the state. There is not expected to be a limit on the number of rounds of ammo a person can buy with each transaction.
It has been reported that a purchaser must provide, not just the customer's name, address, date of birth, and type and quantity of ammunition, but also their occupation.
This leads one to believe that the intent is to allow for the purchase of ammunition that exactly matches the guns owned by the customer. But this would require the state to force us to disclose the caliber of each gun we own. Presently this could only apply to guns requiring a permit, handguns or so-called “assault weapons”.
Such an ammo background database was never funded and was even suspended in 2015 by a “Memorandum of Understanding”. But it was never signed by Democratic leadership and remains in limbo. The funding remains a critical roadblock.
