Congressional Democrats have revived laws that will successfully get rid of on-line ammunition gross sales nationwide, introducing the measure simply weeks earlier than federal courts put together to rethink constitutional challenges to related state restrictions already going through judicial scrutiny.
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) unveiled the Cease On-line Ammunition Gross sales Act on January 20, 2026, alongside Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-MD). Filed as H.R. 7166, the laws would mandate that federally licensed ammunition sellers confirm photograph identification in particular person for each web buy. The proposal, which resurrects earlier Everytown-backed measures from Watson Coleman, contains an extra surveillance element requiring distributors to report any gross sales exceeding 1,000 rounds inside 5 consecutive days on to the U.S. Lawyer Common.
“Public security should come earlier than comfort for an unregulated market,” Watson Coleman declared in her assertion.“Individuals ship us to Washington as a result of it’s our job to guard them, not mourn them.”
The laws arrives as federal courts wrestle with exactly these questions in Rhode v. Bonta, a virtually decade-long constitutional problem to California’s ammunition background examine system. The case, supported by the Nationwide Rifle Affiliation and California Rifle & Pistol Affiliation, assaults the Golden State’s first within the nation point-of-sale background examine regime that voters permitted by way of Proposition 63 in 2016.
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California’s framework, which took impact July 1, 2019, requires ammunition purchasers to finish background checks by way of one in every of 4 avenues, every involving charges starting from $5 to $31 and unpredictable delays spanning minutes to days.
Constitutional challenges to this measure achieved vital success by way of two ranges of federal courts. U.S. District Decide Roger Benitez completely enjoined enforcement of California’s ammunition background examine necessities on January 30, 2024, concluding they “don’t have any historic pedigree” and “violate the Second Modification proper of residents to maintain and bear arms.” The choice discovered that tens of 1000’s of law-abiding gun homeowners confronted annual rejections primarily based on technical errors in California’s background examine system.
A 3 decide Ninth Circuit panel affirmed this ruling on July 24, 2025, in a 2 to 1 choice. Making use of the framework established in New York State Rifle & Pistol Affiliation v. Bruen, the panel concluded that California’s ammunition background examine regime “meaningfully constrains the fitting to maintain operable arms” and subsequently implicates the Second Modification’s plain textual content. The panel decided that California did not exhibit the regulation’s consistency with the nation’s historic custom of firearm regulation.
Nevertheless, California efficiently petitioned for en banc overview, which the Ninth Circuit granted on December 1, 2025. This order vacated the three decide panel’s ruling and scheduled oral arguments for the week of March 23, 2026. The en banc overview means all the appeals courtroom will rethink the case, creating uncertainty about whether or not the constitutional protections acknowledged by the panel will survive.
In a putting improvement, the U.S. Division of Justice filed an amicus temporary on January 5, 2026, supporting the plaintiffs’ problem to California’s ammunition regime.
The temporary’s language is exceptional in its directness, stating that California’s legal guidelines “don’t cross even the ‘chortle take a look at’” and the system “evoke[s] a convoluted board sport, not a critical try and additional a reliable objective.” The DOJ argues that the regulation is “designed to burden the train of the fitting to bear arms” and that “a firearms regulation that seeks to frustrate the train of the fitting to maintain and bear arms is a per se violation of the Second Modification.”
Moreover, a coalition of 26 states filed an amicus temporary supporting the problem, contending that each the background examine and anti-importation necessities “burden the basic proper to armed self protection by interfering with ammunition purchases” and are “unprecedented in our Nation’s historic custom of firearm regulation.”
This creates a exceptional scenario the place Democratic legislators suggest federal adoption of a state system that the federal government department actively opposes in litigation. The Cease On-line Ammunition Gross sales Act would nationalize exactly the kind of regulatory scheme that federal courts have concluded violates the Second Modification.
At present, six states preserve ammunition background examine or seller switch necessities for direct-to-consumer gross sales. California and New York function level of sale techniques, whereas Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New Jersey require background checks.
The constitutional vulnerability of ammunition background examine necessities underneath the Bruen framework presents formidable obstacles to each California’s present regime and proposed federal laws. The Supreme Court docket’s emphasis on historic custom and its rejection of curiosity balancing exams have basically altered Second Modification jurisprudence, making novel restrictions like level of sale ammunition checks troublesome to defend.
Regardless of its sponsors’ said considerations about public security, H.R. 7166 faces insurmountable political obstacles within the present Congress. The invoice has been referred to the Home Judiciary Committee, chaired by Consultant Jim Jordan from Ohio, who has persistently prioritized Second Modification protections. Republicans maintain a slim 218 to 213 majority within the Home.
For gun rights advocates, the simultaneous introduction of H.R. 7166 and the pending Rhode v. Bonta choice represents a defining second in Second Modification jurisprudence. If federal courts proceed recognizing that ammunition entry is inseparable from the constitutional proper to bear arms, legislative makes an attempt to impose burdensome restrictions on lawful purchasers might lastly face the constitutional scrutiny they’ve lengthy evaded.
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About José Niño
José Niño is a contract author primarily based in Charlotte, North Carolina. You may contact him through Fb and X/Twitter. Subscribe to his Substack e-newsletter by visiting “Jose Nino Unfiltered” on Substack.com.
