WASHINGTON — In 1993, then- U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan came up with what he thought was the answer to limiting mass killings: Tax ammunition.

At the time, Moynihan (D-N.Y.) said that the U.S. had enough guns to last for 200 years but only enough ammunition for four. So he proposed raising taxes on the deadliest ammunition, the kind used in handguns to kill people, not in shotguns to hunt. "Guns don't kill people; bullets do," he told the Senate. Law enforcement officers and the military would be exempt.

With Congress unwilling to take any steps to limit access to weapons, such as requiring background checks at gun shows, even after the murder of 26 people in 2012 at a Newton, Conn., elementary school, U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-12th Dist.) is taking a page out of Moynihan's book and looking at ammunition sales.

Watson Coleman's bill introduced earlier this month wouldn't stop the sales, just require buyers of ammunition over the Internet to pick up their product at a federally licensed gun dealer and show identification. In addition, vendors would have to report to the Justice Department the name of anyone not a licensed dealer who buys more than 1,000 rounds within five days.

The Stop Online Ammunition Sales Act of 2015 has garnered 30 co-sponsors, including four of the other five New Jersey House Democrats: Frank Pallone Jr. (D-6th Dist.), Albio Sires (D-8th Dist.), Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-9th Dist.) and Donald Payne Jr. (D-10th Dist.).

The National Rifle Association did not respond to requests for comment.

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Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.