Harry Reid has introduced a bill on behalf of fellow Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who has been out sick for much of the year, which would require background checks on any purchases of gunpowder.

All commercially available ammunition contains gunpowder, which can be fairly easily extracted, even if the process is a bit time consuming, from complete ammo cartridges. Due to this fact it is thought by some this bill could become a federal requirement on background checks for ammo sales.

This would grind our current background check system to a halt, pretty much destroy the online ammo industry, and raise the price of ammo exponentially.

Even if the bill contains an exemption for ammo (we’re waiting on the full text to be posted online), it is still bad news for ammo prices if one of the components used in ammo manufacture becomes more controlled.

The bill currently has no co-sponsors and is in the Judiciary committee.