Showing ID to buy pistol ammo

[Plan2Live]

I'm in my 50s now but remember when I was a kid down in Florida, unless I have a false memory, my dad had to show his driver's license to buy ammo that was considered "pistol ammo" and the clerk kept a handwritten log. Does anyone else have a similar memory and if so, was this an actual law back in the 60s and 70s? If this was a requirement, when did it change?

 

[scout777]

i do remeber that had to put my name in that book manny times show how old we are lol

 

[Swing]

IIRC, FOPA86 amended the GCA68 and did away with that requirement.

 

[BK]

The Gun Control Act of 1968 was enacted in October of that year. It prohibits the sale of handgun ammo to people under 21 years of age.

 

[JRH6856]

As I recall, GCA 68 initially required ID for all handgun ammo purchases with sales recorded in a "bound book". The record keeping requirement was subsequently repealed, but there is still a minimum age of 18 to buy handgun ammo so stores will require ID if they feel it is necessary to verify age.

 

[jmr40]

You've had to be 18 to purchase shotgun and rifle ammo and 21 for handgun ammo for as long as I can remember. This is a law. I know of no legal requirement for documenting this. I believe this is just a CYA thing some stores use to make sure employees check.

When I was younger I have been asked to show ID when purchasing ammo at Walmart, but even they haven't asked in years. When you ring up certain items at Walmart the register will ask the clerk to verify age before the sale can be completed. If it is obvious they usually don't even ask. Never been asked at smaller gunshops where everyone knows me anyway.

The only time I've ever had an issue is when trying to do the self checkout. If buying some items a live person has to come over and verify your age. Not only ammo, but spray paint, certain types of batteries, some cleaning supplies, and non-prescription drugs will send up red flags and quantities are limited. Stuff used to make Meth.

 

[TheSaint]

When I lived in IL, you need to show your F.O.I.D. card whenever you buy any ammo, regardless of it being pistol versus rifle.

At my local gun stores/Walmart here in CA, they don't ever check my ID. I'm in my 30's and look like I'm in my mid-twenties due to having a younger-ish looking face, not super young.

 

[Plan2Live]

I'm certainly not endorsing the practice, I was just trying to verify if my memory was correct. Since it appears it was correct, does anyone remember any widespread objection to the practice? Granted I didn't shoot a lot back then and didn't hang around any "gun guys" except one uncle who was a hunter but I don't remember a lot of uproar over this. I just find that an interesting observation. Was the gun world less organized, more compliant back then?

 

[Davek1977]

Growing up in rural SD in the 80's....I routinely bought all manner of ammo with no issues, form the time I could see over the counter or [point to what I wanted. In fact, most local shops knew EXACTLY why I was coming in....to buy ammo or fishing tackle. Living 5 miles from the nearest town, and 21 miles from my high school (and the nearest neighbor my age actually lived further away than "town"), a fishing pole and a rifle were often my two closest friends. To this day, they let me down far less often than real "friends" do

 

[Carl N. Brown]

When I was a kid, guns were sold at Wards, Sears, Western Auto, J.C.Penny's who had their own housebrands (easily recognized as being made by Marlin, Winchester, Savage, FN, etc.). When Dad and I went to the old homeplace on the mountain to target practice, you could count on practically every general store and gas station to be stocked with at least .22LR and 12ga, maybe .410 and .30-30 stocked because they were everyday consumer goods as much as sugar, flour and motor oil.

I was 20 when the 1968 Gun Control Act was passed. I remember the constant anti-gun press and political drumbeat demonizing and marginalizing gun owners, and attacks on the NRA that were just a constant stream of lies. I remember being restricted to buying ammo only at dealers with FFLs and having to present drivers license ID and have every box by make, caliber and quantity recorded in a bound book with my name, addresss, drivers license number, DOB. Even ATF admitted those records never benefited any criminal prosecution. And gradually, as restrictions piled on, guns were removed from the mainstream--Sears, Wards, J.C. Penneys, Western Auto dropped guns and ammo, and locally sales moved to dedicated gun shops, often "cop shops" who also were Class III. Today WalMart is the only general merchandise store with a sporting goods department that sales guns and ammo, and the anti-gunners are going after WalMart.

Was the gun world less organized, more compliant back then?

Yes.

But as the hate speech piled on from the Left (The Nation, The New Republic) and from Democrats (Metzenbaum, Dodd), I became radicalized. Authority did not trust me, and I learned not to trust authority. I realized tho' I was not alone.

Senator Tydings ordered the FBI to investigate the NRA as an unregistered lobby rather than an educational association, because of NRA testimony against a national gun registry. So the NRA decided what the heck and informed the FBI that NRA was registering as a lobby, cutting short the FBI investigation, and formed what became the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (ILA), and went full tilt boogie against gun control.

Gun control excess organized resistence to gun control, awakened millions of sleeping giants, and filled them with resolve. We were unorganized, compliant then, but never again.

 

[RugerBob]

I live in Sanford, Maine and have to show my ID at walmart to buy ammo. I heard its because of Massechusettes laws for some reason. I also have to pay for it at ammo counter.
But if I go north to Portland, I can get it without ID and carry it thru store till I get to main checkout line.

 

[Blackstone]

The NRA is truly awe inspiring to me. I remember a few years ago when I was just getting into guns, I was speaking with a liberal historian friend at university, and I asked if she knew about the NRA. She shook a bit, and said that it was the most powerful lobbying group in the US. And this is in Britain!

 

[splithoof]

The NRA is I believe the oldest civil rights organization in the United States, much to the horror of all of our liberal socialists legislators, academia, and media.
We subjects here in some California fiefdoms must display official papers (ID) in order to purchase ammunition that can be used in handguns. From the WalMart stores I go to , this at times seems random, depending on who is checking.
The legislature is working to require a license to purchase ammunition; a very old neighbor (90's) said it reminded him of the yellow star he was forced to wear as a young persom many years ago in Europe.

 

[Akita1]

I don't show ID for ammo anywhere but Wally's here in FL. As for NRA's lobbying activity, they're not even on the radar screen re: spend.

 

[dbp]

Not only ammo, but spray paint, certain types of batteries, some cleaning supplies, and non-prescription drugs will send up red flags and quantities are limited. Stuff used to make Meth.

Yeah, I'm 66 and had to show ID at Lowes last year to buy a can of spray paint. The lady at the register told me that she was sorry but the transaction couldn't be completed until she entered my actual birth date into the computer system. I told her not to worry about it and that I was flattered she thought I was so much younger!

 

[Lj1941]

The assasintions of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King is what drove the Liberals to pass the GC Act of 1968.When the ammunition provision was finally repealed even Ted Kennedy admitted the law was useless and served no purpose.

 

[JRH6856]

There was a lot going on in the '60s that drove the gun control agenda. Besides the assassinations, there were the war protests, race riots, Black Panthers, Black Muslims, Weather Underground, a lot of anti-establishment rhetoric producing a "law and order" backlash. For a while, it looked as though only the "bad guys" had guns and were using them. Reagan signed gun control laws in California, Nixon supported federal gun control, all in the name of law and order. And of course, when the average gun owner thought of gun control, he thought it meant somebody else's guns.

 

[Trung Si]

And of course, when the average gun owner thought of gun control, he thought it meant somebody else's guns.

Exactly and I being Young, Dumb and in the Army then, was one of them!

 

[easyg]

The NRA is truly awe inspiring to me. I remember a few years ago when I was just getting into guns, I was speaking with a liberal historian friend at university, and I asked if she knew about the NRA. She shook a bit, and said that it was the most powerful lobbying group in the US. And this is in Britain!

I think both the AMA and the AARP are more powerful than the NRA.
They get more laws passed and amended than the NRA ever has.

 

[bannockburn]

I can remember the book keeping requirement for ammo after the GCA of 1968 was passed. It seemed like all of the FFLs and large retail sporting goods stores kept up the ID check and log book entries but that smaller Mom and Pop stores which sold ammo never even bothered to ask us for any ID when we bought from then. Eventually not too long after that most retail stores still asked for ID but stopped putting the info in the logbooks.

 

[The-Reaver]

Show ID for " pistol ammo "
Never gets written down, never gets swiped. In fact when I show my ID I cover my name and address portion of the ID just leaving my DOB

 

[444]

Yes, I remember my dad doing that was I was a kid.
I remember them writing something down and the whole enchilada.

I had forgotten about that and am glad you brought it up so I could hear the reason this isn't done anymore.

 

[444]

"The NRA has been one of the most consistently influential political lobbies in American politics for the past 30 years, since it first endorsed Ronald Reagan as a presidential candidate. More recently, it spent an $7.2 million during the 2010 elections on so-called private expenditures, messages that advocated or opposed certain political candidates. They even got Chuck Norris to star in an ad for their “Trigger The Vote” campaign, imploring potential voters to register.

Much of the NRA’s power, however, seems to lie less in its spending and more in its ability to mobilize its members, who are 4 million strong and well-versed in grassroots campaigning. Gun rights are a polarizing issue in America, and can make or break politicians and legislation. Al Gore, for example, lost the 2000 election in his own home state of Tennessee, primarily because of his pro gun-control stance. "

http://www.businesspundit.com/10-of-the-biggest-lobbies-in-washington/

 

[doc2rn]

I can remember buying .22lr as a kid in '81 or '82 from the ACE lawn and garden center by the box or for the financially strapped half a box.

 

[Coyote3855]

I could buy .22 ammunition from my Junior High science teacher. With a note from my parents, I could check out a .22 rifle from him and take it home for the weekend. Rifles and ammo were kept in the classroom. That's how freaking old I am!