Reggie Davis, the Wayne County commissioner for the sixth district, will announce a novel gun safety ordinance on Tuesday morning that would seek to regulate ammunition, not guns.

"We’re up against some state and federal laws. Even if it takes me going to lobby in D.C., and I expect it will, we need to make these changes," he told the Free Press.

But before 2001, Davis admits, "had a fetish with guns. I had sniper rifles, double barrel sawed-offs, glocks," he said.

Everything changed on February 19, 2001, when Davis' younger brother, Vito, was slain in a botched armed robbery.

"He was a kid who was not in the streets and had a father and an older brother to steer him," Davis said of his brother. "One night after midnight, someone decided to rob him because he had a car and some nice things."

After Vito died, Reggie Davis dedicated his life to preventing future tragedies: "I’m going to memorialize my brother and his life in the fight against gun violence."

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Davis believes that by proposing legislation targeting ammunition instead of weapons, he's creating room for compromise with gun rights advocates and getting at the root of the problem.

"It’s not the gun that’s doing the killing, it’s the bullets. We have no laws that restrict the purchasing of ammunition for the majority of handguns."

Davis' "bullet bill" ordinance would build a new structure for purchasing ammunition around law enforcement approval. Potential buyers would need to undergo a mental illness background check with their local police department or the Wayne County Sheriff's Office. They would also need approval for each purchase – except at gun shows, where showing a certificate of a previous mental illness check would be sufficient.

Finally, the ordinance would raise taxes on ammunition and use the funds for gun safety and gun rights education – teaching "about the second amendment, about how to use a gun safely and about gun violence," Davis said.

Davis expects he will face resistance from gun rights advocates like the National Rifle Association (NRA), but hopes he can work out a compromise.

"I have a lot of respect for them," he said of the NRA, and while Davis no longer owns any guns, "I totally support the second amendment. I respect and understand the right to bear arms. But only to those who have no mental illness and can responsibly use that gun to protect themselves."

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"There’s give and take here. We can take the proceeds from the taxes on ammunition for gun safety and gun rights education," he said.

The NRA declined to comment, saying it does not usually issue statements on legislation that it hasn't read.

By implementing what he thinks of as common-sense reforms only targeting ammunition, Davis believes he can craft a constitutional piece of legislation. "I don't see how" it would be unconstitutional, he said.

If he gets the ordinance passed in Wayne County, Davis said, he would like to see it implemented at the state and, eventually, federal level. Reforms are urgently needed "for myself and others who continue to go to the morgue and identify family who died of gunshot wounds," he said.