Posted on 06/22/2013 8:05:36 AM PDT by aimhigh
California passed a controversial microstamping bill back in 2007, but was not able to implement it due to patent issues. Then, in mid to late May 2013, California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced, effective immediately, all new semi-automatic firearms sold in the State of California will require a unique microstamp on every shell ejected when a gun is fired.
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Federal law prohibits the destruction or defacing of serial number on firearms, but it also currently prohibits the registry of firearms. This produces a dilemma with regard to microstamping. California’s solution was to define microstamping as other than a serial number so it would not run afoul of Federal law for registry. At the same time, that allows every owner to obliterate the microstamp or simply replace the engraved part—both of which would be legal and would render the stamp useless for later prosecution.
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Would you take your semi-auto to the range? Perhaps pop a few caps; burn a little powder. What did you leave behind? I’ll tell you what—your nom de plume, John Hancock, ATM pin—in essence your personal fingerprint. All that would be required is for a criminal to get one or two cases and leave them behind at a crime scene and your life becomes a personal hell courtesy of the legislature.
(Excerpt) Read more at cdn2.cheaperthandirt.com ...
Are you using gloves to load your rounds and police the brass?
‘Atz why I -used to own- own a revolver. Until that tragic boating accident 6 miles out on Lake Superior.
Let’s say you owned a microstamped pistol and the state had your tag registered. Would you take your semi-auto to the range? Perhaps pop a few caps; burn a little powder. What did you leave behind? I’ll tell you what—your nom de plume, John Hancock, ATM pin—in essence your personal fingerprint. All that would be required is for a criminal to get one or two cases and leave them behind at a crime scene and your life becomes a personal hell courtesy of the legislature. and there it is...
Would you take your semi-auto to the range? Perhaps pop a few caps; burn a little powder. What did you leave behind? I’ll tell you what—your nom de plume, John Hancock, ATM pin—in essence your personal fingerprint. All that would be required is for a criminal to get one or two cases and leave them behind at a crime scene and your life becomes a personal hell courtesy of the legislature.
Aw Heck, Why bother, just have the law changed so that you have to go to the Police Department; shoot off two or three magazines into ballistics gel and “not” be allowed to police your brass. Voila, instant suspect and it’s even better than a “throw-down” gun.
I’d remove the stamp.
It amounts to a registry.
Federal law prohibits the destruction or defacing of serial number on firearms, but it also currently prohibits the registry of firearms.
I believe federal registration of firearms by means of 4473 forms is prohibited, but state registration remains legal.
Given the point of so-called "micro-stamping" is to make firearms more expensive and less widely available, I believe it might be worthwhile for pro-freedom lawyers to attack it as an inequitable tax on the exercise of a civil right. How well would that do in court? In the People's Republic of California, probably about 2% as well as a pregnant pole vaulter.
3-D Printers will take care of ammo needs.
All yu need is
1.a flex-neck illuminated microscope
2. a needle
3. some battery acid.
How does micro stamping work? Is it on the firing pin, extractor, or chamber wall?
It's laser engraved with the make, model and serial number on the tip of a gun’s firing pin. That would be impossible to defeat, wouldn't it? I was unable to find a new firing pin for my 1911 for under $9.95, and who has the five spare minutes that replacement would take even if they can afford it?
It amounts to a registry
Let's say that some gun maker comes out with a new handgun design that you want to buy. The problem is not the microstamp, but the fact that you won't be able to find that new handgun to buy in California in the first place. The manufacturer isn't going to produce special, California-only versions of their new gun. And since the microstamping tooling will be prohibitively expensive, they certainly won't add it to all of their guns by default. They will, instead, make guns for every State but California. They will just right off this market. And since all of their competitors will do the same, this de facto boycot won't hurt their bottom line.
And that is the real point of this law: To make new hanguns illegal in California.
True dat.
It’ll get shot down in the courts.
Kamilla made an arbitray edict that actually has no factual basis.
No one knows what she is talking about, in regards to there being non proprietary or patent protected designs.
She is just setting the table for her run at guv
I disagree. It would be relatively easy to produce CA specific firearms. They’d do just as they do with gasoline: Ship the adulterated model to the entire Western region, not just CA. I live in AZ and I hate that because it drives up the price of fuel here.
Besides, it is a stupid idea. As mentioned above, a criminal could simply police your brass at the range to throw the police off his track, and obliterating the number is too easy with a file or a replacement firing pin. If the state could have done this in secret it might have been useful, but they can’t so they shouldn’t do it at all.
I see your point there, but fingerprints are fragile and don't last very long. They get smeared and obliterated every time someone handles them, so they aren't of that much use to a criminal trying to incriminate you by policing your brass. The microstamp, however, would be a permanent mark.
But you bring up an excellent point: When you go to the range and you don't police your brass, you are leaving fingerprints and likely DNA. But, since our bodies are constantly sloughing off dead skin cells, it's theoretically possible to acquire samples from every step you take in life, unless you wear one of those bunny suits workers wear in semiconductor fabrication plants. You know, the ones made famous by John Kerry.
Adding chemicals to gasoline is far easier than embossing individual stampings into steel. The law calls for individualized marks that are on the chamber as well as the firing pin. So after one barrel is made, the yet-to-be-invented tooling must change before the next barrel is made. Doing this on an outer surface is easy, but on an inside surface? Guess again. It’s an expensive proposition and the CA market just isn’t worth it; especially if being seen as bending to the will of Kamala Harris hurts a gun maker’s sales in the rest of Free America. (Think of Smith and Wesson’s former British owners kowtowing to the Clinton Administration.)
I missed that part in the story. You are suggesting it's not economically or technologically feasible. I disagree, CA is a very large market, even with their crappy laws. There will be gun manufacturers willing to go through the expense and add the price to the weapon, even if it's sold in AZ. It hasn't been invented yet because there hasn't been a demand. There will be if CA gets this law. I can easily imagine a device using a laser and tiny mirror that could engrave something into the inside of the breech end of the barrel. It, too, would be easy to defeat with a pencil and fine-grit emery cloth.
As an optical engineer, I can't. ;^)
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