A gun isn’t good for much without ammunition. Which ammunition? FMJ? Hollowpoints? +P? Green tip? Heavier for caliber? Light for caliber? What’s best? Which should your customer buy?

As with most things, mission dictates gear.

There are some caveats and specifics that you need to be mindful of when it comes to ammo, and the same goes for your customers. How do you ensure you’re offering the right assortment of what your customers might need, and nothing that will cause them issues?

What Is Legal?

Before we go any further, it’s time for that standard caveat. The following is not legal advice; I’m not a lawyer or government official. What follows is not specific advice, either — rather, it is to serve as a discussion to ensure that you’re thinking about how you present ammunition to your customers and how you help them understand their choices. Laws changes all the time, at the federal, state, and local level, and it falls on you to make sure that any products or advice given to your customers is within the bounds of those regulations.

So, what is legal ammunition to sell?

It depends. It depends on your state, your locality, and myriad other factors. Legal ammo may not be legal to sell without proper credentials. So, the ammunition may be legal, but the purchaser may not be. What’s legal in one state isn’t legal somewhere else.

You know this. I know this. Your customer might not always know this.

More than that, with how fast regulations change, we might not always be as versed as we should be.

Take armor-piercing ammunition as an example. Here is the definition from 1986 Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act of 1986, which was an amendment to the Gun Control Act of 1968.

(17)(A) The term “ammunition” means ammunition or cartridge cases, primers, bullets, or propellent powder designed for use in any firearm.

(B) The term “armor piercing ammunition” means —

(i) a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a handgun and which is constructed entirely (excluding the presence of traces of other substances) from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or depleted uranium; or

(ii) a full jacketed projectile larger than .22 caliber designed and intended for use in a handgun and whose jacket has a weight of more than 25 percent of the total weight of the projectile.

Given that the above language is meant to define armor-piercing ammunition, it would probably strike a lot of people odd that the performance of a bullet against body armor isn’t part of the statute that governs its existence, sale, or use.

There are some other oddities in here, such as being specific to handguns, but I didn’t cite this definition to get into the legal nuances therein, rather, it was to show just how fraught the bunny trail of legality and legal definitions can be.

Let this serve as the first and primary example of why chasing down the details of what is legal and isn’t, and where that’s the case and where it isn’t, won’t be our focus.

None of us have the legal training to do so efficiently, moreover, we probably understand firearms and their use too well for any of this to make logical sense.

The Good News

Luckily, none of us has to be our own resource to understand the legal quagmire that exists around our Second Amendment rights and the instruments of exercising those rights.

There are networks available to retailers to not only ensure compliance, but also to help them understand what compliance means — not just around ammunition, but around most any product in our space.

At the very top of this list is the suite of compliance resources offered by the NSSF to its members. It takes very little time to get to this portion of the website. Once there, you will find access to articles and resources that help explain compliance items of note.

Members also have access to a 24/7 hotline. Additionally, they have ATF compliance consultations to help keep you educated and ready for inspections or reviews.

Sure, the NSSF puts on SHOT Show, but that’s just a small part of what they do. As the trade group for the firearms industry, NSSF exists to support its members as a resource. SHOT Show serves as a networking event, but there are dozens of people at NSSF that have almost nothing to do with SHOT. They are there to maintain the infrastructure of the trade group so we all have the information we need to make solid business decisions.

Speaking of SHOT, it’s a popular meme format to mock the fact that the ATF always has a space at the show. For better or worse, we have to work with our counterparts at the ATF, and while the relationship between the industry and the agency hasn’t always been flowery, they can be a resource as well.

I’ve spoken with dozens of shop owners over the years. Most of them only have good things to say about their local ATF office and the agents they deal with regularly. Are there bad apples? Of course. The same could be said of shop owners, customers, and Boy Scouts. Largely, however, your local ATF office and the agents there are happy to be of help when they can. Don’t discount them as a resource.

Because so much of the industry is driven by compliance, you can also look to your distribution partners in many instances. They may not be able to give specific advice, but manufacturers and distributors spend a tremendous amount of time on proactive compliance, ensuring they aren’t stepping outside the law when they ship product.

If a product isn’t legal in your area, or only so in specific instances, manufacturers will usually know. Same with distributors.

Again, they aren’t going to give legal advice, but if they have a compliance exposure by sending you product, you’ll know. At that point, you can investigate further so you know what that issue is, so you can understand it better.

Lastly, you should probably have a local attorney you work with regularly just in case something goes wrong. It’s always better to have a working relationship with a professional like that when things are good, so should something bad happen, you aren’t starting from zero. Periodic document reviews, legal filings with the state, even estate planning are all better ways to get to know a good lawyer than waiting until there’s pending charges or litigation.

It’s Not Easy

The definition I pulled earlier was just one example of what the legal reality of our business looks like. The nature of our republic means we have 50 different states with 50 different realities for guns, gun stores, and gun owners. Each of those states falling under a federal umbrella that has been a bit of a windsock in recent years as each administration sets about making its own mark on the industry.

If it were easy, everybody would do it. That’s what I tell my kid when he doesn’t want to go to football practice, anyway…

Do your due diligence, take advantage of the resources at your disposal, and above all, never get caught in the trap of thinking you know everything. The legality of our industry is always, always changing.