[neverdem]

Only Maryland and New York passed "ballistic fingerprinting" laws, which have not solved any crimes. The last that I read, Maryland wanted to stop funding it. Maryland House weighs ballistics database

[BooksForTheRight.com]

The left will not give up.
Join the NRA.

[Gordongekko909]

"All it takes is a few swipes (on the pin) with a sandpaper or nail file, and (the marker) is gone," he said.

Who cares? This law, useless as it may be, will make us FEEEEEEEEL better! And it will let tax-and-spend leftists appear "tough on crime" to appear to moderates! Waah!

[Steely Tom]

How 'bout a bill requiring tags on illegal aliens?

[EagleUSA]

Just more stupid harrassment from the left. They are incrementally trying to disarm the public. Tagging of ammo is the dumbest idea these communist morons have come up with yet.

[Mr. Mojo]

"All it takes is a few swipes (on the pin) with a sandpaper or nail file, and (the marker) is gone," he said.

Plus, firing pins can be (and often are) replaced.

[frankiep]

Looks like the leftist gun grabbers have realized that they will never be able to outlaw guns entirely. What better way, then, to make sure us common folk remain unarmed than to require procedures that make buying ammunition too expensive.

This is NOT for solving crimes. It is ONLY to raise prices to make self defense less affordable for civilians.

[El Laton Caliente]

Ten minutes to disassemble, five minutes to polish the firing pin with fine sandpaper, ten minutes to reassemble...

Less than a half hour to overcome, this will work great...

[TheOracleAtLilac]

Talk 'bout talkin' outta yer a$$

It has the potential to solve some significant crimes in some pretty large numbers, Koretz said

This guy's a time traveler who's returned to save us w/ a simple bit of legislation.

[azhenfud]

I have conceived a method where the barrel rifling has grooves representing numeric digits of the weapon's serial numbers and as a projectile passes through it, it imprints the groove data on the bullet via varying widths and depths of the rifle grooves. With a 0-9 configuration, the serial number of the weapon could, in effect, be imprinted around the girth of the bullet fired through the barrel.

But, I can't seem to get anyone interested in the concept.

[DBrow]

This will only work with NEW guns, not existing ones.

[flying Elvis]

And in other news, California now mandates that all armed robbers wear a name tag and present id at the door.

[theBuckwheat]

Liberalism is a disorder of processing information and subsequent decision making. This idea is as specious and ineffective.

Google "glock firing pins": 29,000 hits. "colt firing pins": 69,100 hits. "sandpaper" 1.7 million hits.

[JamesP81]

I told him if they're able to file (the pin) down, I'll halt the bill," Koretz said. "My understanding of the technology is that it's pretty foolproof.

Take it to the local machine shop and have them cut it with a PCD tool.

[umgud]

This is why you never, never, ever, ever vote for a democrat, not even a pro 2A democrat, because every democrat adds to the majority of the body they sit in. When the dems are the majority, we get more gun control.

Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it tougher for sober people to own cars.

[randog]

That drew a big laugh from Todd Lizotte, who developed the technology for use in laser printers while he was vice president of NanoVia, a semiconductor and microelectronic equipment manufacturer bought by Hitachi in 2003.

There's nothing stopping perpetrators of gun violence from doing that now, he said.

That's because there's no motivation for them to seed the crime scene with bogus shells because it's difficult to trace a spent round to a single gun unless (a) that gun was used in a previous crime and its "fingerprints" are on file, or (b) the gun has been recovered and can be tested against evidence.

I'd venture to say that Lizotte is pushing this bill for the benefit of Lizotte, not the public.

[Lekker 1]

Seems to me that the free market could implement this technology pretty well. A lot of responsible gun owners might actually CHOOSE to pay a little extra for a handgun with this feature. Instead of heavy-handed government legislation, they ought to encourage voluntary participation by manufacturers. Am I offbase here?

[upchuck]

More comments and opinions here.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Firing pin is "NEARLY" as hard as a diamond hey? Hold muy beer babe, and let me see your "DIAMOND" fingernail file.

Wife picked up several of the diamond fingernail files at flea market for buck apiece.

[1066AD]

"I question people who opposed something so straightforward," said Griffin Dix, California state council president of the Million Mom March. "You can put an identifying number on every container of yogurt you sell, but not on a gun?"

Umm, guns already have serial numbers.

[Redcitizen]

Through newly developed technology, the firing pin of a semi-automatic weapon can stamp the gun's make and model onto a bullet shell as it leaves the chamber.

Hollywood begins to believe its movies ( Judge Dredd) actually are real.


More than 70 percent of new handguns sold in California are semi-automatic.
And the rest are automatic?




"You can put an identifying number on every container of yogurt you sell, but not on a gun?"

Its called a serial number. Duh!

[CIB-173RDABN]

Why stop here. Why not have a law that says every criminal must leave a photo id at the scene of every crime?

Better yet, make a law that says every crminal must leave a map to their hidding place.

Wait a minute, how about a law that says every criminal must report the crime in person to the local police station.

Now these measures would really put a stop to crime.

[Dead Corpse]

This isn't about making the prosecution of crimes easier. This is about making legal gun ownership harder, impossible if they can manage it.

I call it "treason".

[Centurion2000]

Through newly developed technology, the firing pin of a semi-automatic weapon can stamp the gun's make and model onto a bullet shell as it leaves the chamber. The technology could help police investigate homicides and trace gun trafficking.

So brass catchers and revolvers will become items of choice for the professional hit man.

[Logophile]

Through newly developed technology, the firing pin of a semi-automatic weapon can stamp the gun's make and model onto a bullet shell as it leaves the chamber. The technology could help police investigate homicides and trace gun trafficking.

I assume that "bullet shell" refers to the cartridge case.

One wonders how much this will help in investigations. Suppose the police at a crime scene were to retrieve brass from, say, a Glock 17. Unfortunately, that information alone does not identify which Glock 17 (of which there are hundreds of thousands) was actually used in the crime. Nor does it indentify the one who pulled the trigger.

To address this issue, I propose that the ID firing pin also stamp the weapon's serial number and owner's name on the cartridge.

For this to work, it will be necessary to install ID firing pins in all semi-automatic firearms already in the state, as well as those brought into the state. Whenever a weapon is sold, the new owner's ID firing pin will have to be installed.

Of course, it will also be necessary to pass a law against substituing a non-ID firing pin for an ID pin.

According to the article, 70% of the handguns sold in California are semi-automatics. What do we do about the other 30%, most of which are revolvers? I propose that the law require (1) that revolvers have ID firing pins, and (2) that criminals leave their spent cartridges at crime scenes.

[free_at_jsl.com]

How about a law making it illegal to use a gun in a crime? Oh wait... we already have that one. OK, how about a law making it illegal for ex cons to get guns.... Oh yeah we have that one too. OK, what about laws against robbery, murder, rape, etc.? Wow! with all of these laws we already have, there should be ABSOLUTELY NO CRIME WHATSOEVER. Hmmm, wait a minute here.... the crimes are still happening... What should we do to correct this problem? Choice #1: Enforce the law. Choice #2: Enact even more laws. What is the obvious choice? What is our government doing? Why?

[jjm2111]

""I question people who opposed something so straightforward," said Griffin Dix, California state council president of the Million Mom March. "You can put an identifying number on every container of yogurt you sell, but not on a gun?"

You can always count on the local rep from the dozen mom march to have a really stupid comment.

[hattend]

"It has the potential to solve some significant crimes in some pretty large numbers," Koretz said in a telephone interview.

Prove the potential first.

[John Jorsett]

The pin is nearly as hard as a diamond, he said. In addition, the markers on the pin are invisible to the naked eye.

...

"I told him if they're able to file (the pin) down, I'll halt the bill," Koretz said. "My understanding of the technology is that it's pretty foolproof."

Better pick up a set of diamond files for $18.

[P8riot]

Outfitting new guns will cost the manufacturers 25 cents to 50 cents per firearm

.....and raise the cost to the consumer by approximately 50 to 100 bucks per unit.

[Carry_Okie]

Methinks I'll get mine renumbered with the one that corresponds to DiFi's favorite pistol. :-)

Yeah, that'll work. /s

[monkeyshine]

Anyone can change the hammer or use a file to deface the mark.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

Cost to solve crimes committed with fancy-schmancy serial-numbering-firing pins--HIGH.

Cost to prevent crimes by armed citizens--LOW.

Ability to defend ourselves...PRICELESS

[Little Ray]

Someone ought to ask 'em how many crimes ballistic fingerprinting has solved.

[Smokin' Joe]

"I told him if they're able to file (the pin) down, I'll halt the bill," Koretz said. "My understanding of the technology is that it's pretty foolproof."

Time to shut it down, then.

If the pin is almost as hard as diamond, diamond hones and nail files (harder than the pin) are commonly available for under $10.00.

Also, what is to stop someone from just changing the firing pin? You do not have to be a mechanical genius, if you can field strip the firearm for cleaning and reassemble it, you can change the pin (and you do not even have to dig the nail file out of the Mrs.' maincure set...)

[A CA Guy]

California bill seeks to require guns to tag ammunition

Should be able to also tattoo the heads of illegals before release using the same thinking.

[mylife]

from numrich gun parts:

BERETTA
92B
Item No. 350540
Firing Pin
Retail Price: $11.25

Stupid "tagging" law defeated

[azhenfud]

"It has the potential to solve some significant crimes in some pretty large numbers,"

---

The more logical solution is to retire the donut eaters and put actual detectives on the job.

Some time ago, and that article appeared here on FreeRepublic, the Hollywood,Ca police said they needed help finding a lady who was kidnapped from her apartment by a man and the struggle was caught on surveillence video along with his making a cell phone call, possibly to the woman.

I called and spoke with the detective in charge and told him he ought to get the cellphone records made by users who are served by the tower servicing the area. Before I could relay my logic, the officer responded as if irritated, "I don't know where you're from, but in case you aren't aware, there are literally thousands of calls made through that tower daily." I said, "Yeah, but you have the exact timing of his call, when he made it and how long the call was, to compare with those records shown by the time and date stamp on the video tape." He got defensive, "thanked" me, and hung up.

[punster]

Koretz is an idiot. He doesn't understand firearms. Neither does he have any intention of doing anything which would really solve the crime problem, like taking career criminals of the street, permanently. If he solves the problem, he doesn't have anything to cry about.

[Myrddin]

Expensive and stupid idea. I pick up brass at the indoor range and reload it. The brass that hits the floor is likely to have marks from 2 to 10 different firearms. Firing pins only strike the primer. That is discarded on each reload. Firing pins are easily changed too. Barrels are easily replaced on most semi-automatics. Dumb idea. Maybe this will be the final stupid act that convinces firearms manufacturers to cut off all sales in California (private AND law enforcement). Let the idiots hang by their petard.