This week’s “Seriously?” news comes from Baltimore, where mayorial candidate Otis Rolley says he would institute a $1-per-bullet tax, with the hope the tax would cut down on the amount of ammunition people buy.

“This is not a revenue-enhancement tool,” Rolley said. “It’s a make-it-difficult-for-you-to-buy-bullets tool.”

Rolley believes that the tax would generate awareness and decrease random shootings.

One has to wonder if he took seriously Chris Rock’s standup routine of some years back, where Rock stated that gun control wasn’t necessary, all we had to do was make bullets $5,000 apiece. That way, he said, there will be no innocent bystanders. If a bullet costs $5,000, he reasoned, a person is going to be very careful who they shoot, and certainly the victim would have deserved it at that price.

While Rock’s routine is quite funny, and certainly makes sense in the context of random shootings in inner cities, Rolley is failing to take into account that, like most gun control legislation, criminals would simply find a way around it. It will only be honest, law-abiding gun owners, who would like to purchase large amounts of ammunition for range practice, who would suffer by passing such legislation.

Criminals care little for conscientious gun ownership, nor do they care about properly caring for and practicing with their weapons. The bad guys will find ways to get cheap bullets, or steal them, just like they find ways to get guns even when strict purchasing and ownership laws are in place.

The spirit of Rolley’s idea is actually quite clever, and makes sense from the point of view of someone caught in the crossfire of drive-bys and gang violence, but taken to its logical conclusion, this is a proposition that just doesn’t pass muster.