But a felon buying ammunition, she noted, does not raise any flags.

“State law does not require a background check for the/at the time of purchase of ammunition privately or through a federally-licensed gun dealer,” Geller wrote in an email.

Lori Haas, Virginia state director for Washington, D.C.-based The Coalition and Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, said that background checks are valuable tools to prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands. Exempting ammo from background checks, she said, does not make horse-sense; why buy ammunition if not to use in a gun.

“The only reason to purchase ammunition is to use it in a firearm,” Haas said. “It makes no sense, if a person is prohibited from purchasing ammunition, that he or she is allowed to purchase ammunition without a background check.”

A spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also confirmed that “there is no federal background check required for ammunition purchases.”

Danville Police Department Capt. H.S. Richardson said that police do arrest and charge convicted felons who illegally possess ammo, but they do it without a background check to raise the alarm.