Newly implemented ammunition controls forced a temporary halt to ammo sales at 131 Walmart stores throughout California.

On January 1, 2018, Breitbart News reported that California’s ammunition controls took effect. These controls require that all ammunition be purchased in-state and that those purchases be conducted via a California-approved dealer.

Moreover, an individual must secure a “California vendor license” to be recognized as a California-approved ammunition dealer. This means that if the state is delayed in issuing the licenses dealers will necessarily be unable to sell ammunition. Said dealers will have to wait to receive their licenses before they can sell a box of 9mm for self-defense or a carton of 22 lr for plinking.

It was just such a delay in license issuance that impacted ammunition sales at Walmart.

According to the Sacramento Bee, Walmart spokeswoman Delia Garcia said “an administrative delay at the state forced Walmart to temporarily halt sales at the 131 Walmarts in California that sell ammunition.” On Tuesday Garcia indicated that the California Department of Justice was working to get the licenses to Walmart so “they can resume normal sales as quickly as possible.”

Whether the delay in ammunition availability is a number of hours or a number of days matters not, the point is still the same. Namely, that the increasingly bureaucratic overreach of California gun and ammunition control literally puts the exercise of the Second Amendment at risk. A law-abiding California resident’s ability to acquire ammunition for self-defense now hinges on whether the state has been punctual in issuing a license to a particular ammunition dealer.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.