According to Leon this is creating significant opportunities for criminals and kids to purchase ammunition in gun shops and sporting goods stores with little to no scrutiny. “In a state where there are more guns than people, we need to ensure that criminals and kids can’t simply walk into a sporting goods store and stock up on cases of handgun ammunition to unload from the barrel of a gun in our neighborhoods,” said de León. “It’s absolutely illogical that there are no safeguards to ensure ammunition dealers aren’t peddling bullets to kids and criminals in our communities.” After some years of declining violent crime, according to the Department of Justice, gun violence is once again on the rise plaguing California with an increase of over 34% in six years—from 1999 to 2005. Current state law requires buyers of handgun ammunition to be 21 or older.

The current law, however, has few safeguards other than a cursory id check. Under AB 362, if passed, retailers would have to collect and file with the state Department of Justice the names, addresses, birth dates, signatures, thumbprints and driver's licenses or identification numbers of all buyers of handgun ammunition, as well as a description of the bullets purchased. Personal information would not be required for rifle and shotgun ammunition, nor for .22 caliber rounds, which can be used both in handguns and rifles. passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee last week on a party-line vote, 5-2, with Democrats supporting it and Republicans opposed. Critics of the bill state that some of the requirements of the law are both impractical and will be expensive. By requiring that ammunition be kept behind a store counter, for example, critics say that buyers could not easily compare brands and that sellers would need to have an employee constantly at the ready to retrieve box after box. Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian, R-Stockton, said the bill would needlessly "throw up yet another obstacle for honest mom-and-pop businesses."