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US. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz wants a federal law that would require background checks for people who buy ammunition.
“I really think it’s important to underscore that without bullets a gun is just a hunk of useless metal, and a would-be killer lacks the means to actually kill or maim,” she said Monday.
It’s already illegal for convicted felons, domestic abusers and dangerously mentally ill people to buy firearms and ammunition. Background checks also are required for some firearms purchasers, but nothing prevents anyone from buying ammunition.
The current system allows someone to “buy as much ammunition as they want, without so much as being asked their first name, and walk out,” said Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston.
By itself, the proposal wouldn’t have prevented high-profile shootings: the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, in which 17 people were killed and 17 wounded; the Oct. 1 shooting that killed 58 in Las Vegas; or the Jan. 6, 2017, shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in which five people were killed and six wounded.