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Used to be whenever a downstate Assembly Democrat Wrote legislation proposing a tax and/or severe restriction on the manufacture and sale of ammunition, it caused a ripple among the hunters and gun owners, but that quickly subsided.  Everyone knew that radical measures involving ammunition and firearms were largely penned for effect in the Metropolitan area and that the Senate wasn't about to allow companion bills out of committee.

"Used to be" is the operative phrase here.  New York's whole political and legislative landscape changed earlier this month and now the liberal and radically anti-gun, anti-hunting, etc. fervor that once thrived only in the Assembly now flows freely in those seats across the aisle.

That's why the fact that New York has bought into a national crusade known as the Ammunition Accountability Act is suddenly a legitimate threat.  New York, Pennsylvania and so far 16 other states have enacted legislation - in each case with virtually identical wording to the nationally lobbied Ammunition Accountability Act - that would mandate the engraving of a unique serial number on the base of each handgun and "assault weapon" bullet and an identical number on the cartridge's case.  The act calls for dealers of this "encoded ammunition" to record the purchaser's name, birth date, drivers license number, etc.

All non-encoded ammunition must be disposed of prior to Jan. 1, 2011.  The database and other expenses involved would be paid for by a special tax of a half-cent per round of ammunition sold.

You can read the whole thing in Assembly Bill 10259, which was introduced last March (without a co-sponsor at the time).  It mirrors A6920, A7300 and Senate companion bills S1177 and S3731, all of which were carried over from 2007.

Pennsylvania's House Bill 2228 is a virtual twin to the New York bills.

Remington and other ammunition manufacturers earlier this year went on record stating that they couldn't afford to sell in those states that required serialization of cartridges because it would be cost prohibitive.  One assumes that this is precisely what the anti-gun folks want.

The Act's lobby maintains (and each bill carries this wording) that 30 percent of all homicides that involve a gun go unsolved and that handgun ammunition accounts for 80 percent of all ammunition sold in the United States.

For that 80 percent figure to be true, it must include .22LR ammunition, since rimfire sales volume just about equals all centerfire calibers combined.  Since hunting and competition handguns of various forms can be chambered for a wide variety of centerfire rifle cartridges, the potential list of ammunition affected is gigantic.