The attorney in the video above breaks down HR 7166, the “Stop Online Ammunition Sales Act,” and his analysis is worth a watch. I want to add my two cents, because I sell ammo for a living.
I’m Lance Rankin, owner of Western Sport, a family-run FFL in Roanoke, Texas, just north of Fort Worth. A good chunk of our business is folks ordering through our online store, so a bill aimed at online ammunition sales isn’t abstract policy to me. It’s my Tuesday.
What the bill would do
HR 7166 has three main pieces. First, anyone buying ammunition online would still have to show up in person so a licensed dealer can check their ID, which guts the whole point of ordering online. Second, it adds new federal licensing requirements for ammunition dealers. Third, any purchase of more than 1,000 rounds within five business days gets reported to the Attorney General and local law enforcement.
Who actually gets squeezed
Criminals aren’t ordering ammo by the case under their real names with a paper trail attached. The people this bill lands on are the ones playing by the rules: rural folks who live an hour or more from the nearest stocking dealer, working parents who can’t burn an afternoon driving across town, seniors and disabled shooters who can’t easily stand in line and haul heavy cases, and competitive shooters who need loads their local shop doesn’t carry.
And about that 1,000-round threshold: it sounds like a lot if you don’t shoot. It isn’t. A single weekend training class can run 500 to 1,000 rounds. A competitive shooter burns through thousands in a season. Plenty of people buy in bulk simply because it’s cheaper, and I don’t blame them. Treating that as suspicious activity worth a report to the AG trains law enforcement to see normal, responsible gun ownership as a red flag.
The legal problem
Under the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision, a modern gun regulation has to line up with America’s historical tradition of firearms regulation. There’s no tradition of banning remote ammunition sales or demanding face-to-face ID checks for every purchase. Americans bought guns and ammo through mail-order catalogs long before the internet existed. If this bill ever became law, I’d expect the court challenges to be immediate and strong. That said, I’m a gunsmith, not a lawyer, so weigh my opinion accordingly.
Where things stand
As of this writing, HR 7166 is a proposed bill, not law. Bills like this get introduced every session and most die in committee, but they’re worth watching because the ideas in them tend to come back. Check the bill’s current status before you assume anything has changed.
In the meantime, buying ammo online is still legal in Texas and most states, and it’s usually the best way to get exactly the load you want at a fair price. If you’re stocking up for carry, my rundown of the best 9mm self-defense ammo is a good place to start, and if you’ve never bought from an online gun store before, here’s how the process works. We ship ammo from our own store, and if you’re local to DFW you can pick up by appointment. Questions? I’m at [email protected] or 817-393-4000.
Lance Rankin is the owner and Chief Gunsmith of Western Sport, a family-run Type 07 FFL and Class 3/SOT dealer in Roanoke, Texas, serving shooters since 2007. Born and raised in Texas with over 50 years of experience handling firearms, Lance purchased Western Sport in 2017 and turned his lifelong passion into his profession. He specializes in AR-15 and AR-10 platform rifles, manufactures Western Sport’s own AR-15 line under the Rankin Industries brand, and runs the shop’s in-house Cerakote coating operation. When he’s not behind the counter or the workbench, you’ll find him on his ranch deep into the night, hunting coyotes with an AR-15 and thermal optics. Lance holds an MBA and personally shoots and tests the products Western Sport sells.
