Free Republic

In 2010, gun-control activists thought they were on the verge of a major victory in Albany. Led by then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and backed by his considerable fortune, activists were pushing a bill requiring new handguns be equipped with microstamping -- technology allowing a unique code to be etched into each bullet casing as it's fired. The marked casing could then be used to determine the make, model and serial number of the weapon from whence it came. The technology has been billed as an aid to law enforcement seeking to identify a gun used by an assailant....

A legal challenge to California’s controversial microstamping law that has effectively outlawed the commercial sale of new semi-auto handgun models in the state is being sent to the nation’s high court. The microstamping mandate, part of California’s Unsafe Handgun Act, was upheld by a 2-1 panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last August in the case of Pena v. Lindley. The lawsuit’s plaintiffs — Ivan Pena, Dona Croston, Roy Vargas, and Brett Thomas — stress they are unable to buy the majority of popular new semi-auto handguns from such companies as Smith & Wesson, Ruger and Glocks...

Gun industry groups insist the legal requirement for semi-auto handguns to mark cartridges with a microscopic array of characters, that identify the make, model and a serial number of the pistol upon firing is “impossible to accomplish” in actual field conditions. (Photo: UCDavis)California’s high court is set to hear arguments in a long running case brought by firearms industry groups who say the state’s microstamping requirement is unattainable. The case, challenging the state’s 2007 unsafe handgun modification requirements, is set for arguments in a Los Angeles court on April 4. Plaintiffs, the National Shooting Sports Foundation and the Sporting Arms...

Gun industry groups argue microstamping is unreliable, serves no safety purpose and is cost prohibitive. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra calls it “smart, effective, and constitutional.” (Photo: ucdavis.edu) A dozen House Democrats are backing a measure mandating pistols sold by licensed dealers be capable of stamping a code on their ammunition at firing. Introduced as the Make Identifiable Criminal Rounds Obvious (MICRO) Act last month, the proposal would strip the ability of federal firearms licensees to sell pistols that do not carry the controversial microstamping technology. Backers argue that as much as 40 percent of murders go unsolved due to...

From AP — Gun manufacturers have the right to present evidence supporting their claim that technology does not exist to comply with a California law requiring new models of semi-automatic handguns to stamp identifying information on bullet casings, a state appeals court said Thursday. The ruling by the 5th District Court of Appeals in Fresno overturned a lower court ruling rejecting a lawsuit by two firearms trade associations that challenged the law.

In a editorial posted today called ‘Microstamping’ technology could help police crack down on gun crimes — if the gun lobby allows it, the editorial board of the Times revealed that they want to ban all firearms in the United States by requiring them to be equipped with a fantasy technology that does not exist in a viable form.

CHICAGO -- An Illinois State Representative from Chicago is addressing the violence epidemic in the city, in a different way. Rep. Sonya Harper, D-Chicago, represents some of the most crime-ridden communities, including Englewood and the Back of the Yards neighborhood. Harper introduced her plan Tuesday for a bill that would require ammunition makers to stamp serial numbers on every bullet sold in Illinois.

Excerpted from Fox News: California’s gun laws are among the nation’s strictest, but a looming decision in a federal lawsuit could effectively ban handguns altogether in the Golden State, according to plaintiffs who want a judge to toss out a state law requiring all new handguns to be equipped with technology that “stamps” each shell casing with a traceable mark. The problem with the “microstamping” law, which was signed into law by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007 but only took effect in 2013, is that it relies on an unworkable technology, according to gun manufacturers and attorneys for the Second...

California's gun laws are among the nation's strictest, but a looming decision in a federal lawsuit could effectively ban handguns altogether in the Golden State, according to plaintiffs who want a judge to toss out a state law requiring all new handguns to be equipped with technology that "stamps" each shell casing with a traceable mark. The problem with the “microstamping” law, which was signed into law by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007 but only took effect in 2013, is that it relies on an unworkable technology, according to gun manufacturers and attorneys for the Second Amendment Foundation and Calguns...

A new California law is preventing consumers from being able to buy the best, ever more reliable models of pistols available, unless the manufacturer microstamps the make, model and serial number in two locations on the gun. In theory, the information would be imprinted on a cartridge casing when the gun is fired. New and improved models not equipped to microstamp are now considered “unsafe” under California law. But, as several independent, peer-reviewed studies have shown, this nascent technology is flawed. It is incapable of reliably, consistently and legibly imprinting the required identifying information in two locations on an expended...

Gun makers’ objections to a California law that requires firearms to imprint a unique “microstamp” on bullet casings are “baloney” and “posturing,” said Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer, who introduced the legislation while serving in the state Assembly. Feuer’s comments come as gun maker Smith & Wesson announced Thursday that it would stop selling newly designed semiautomatic pistols in California because it will not comply with the law, implemented in May 2013. The law requires some firearms to imprint a unique “microstamp” to help identify bullet casings. It is intended to help police investigators link shell casings found at...

A new gun law proponents say helps law enforcement has driven Smith & Wesson and Sturm Ruger out of California, and affirmed the suspicions of firearms rights advocates that the measure is really about making handguns obsolete. The two companies have announced they will stop selling their wares in the nation’s most populous state rather than try to comply with a law that requires some handguns to have technology that imprints a tiny stamp on the bullet so it can be traced back to the gun. The companies, and many gun enthusiasts, say so-called “microstamping” technology is unworkable in its...

On January 22nd renowned gun maker Smith & Wesson joined Sturm, Ruger, & Co., by announcing it would cease California sales of its semi-automatic pistols due to microstamping requirements that went into effect last year. Ruger made the same announcement earlier this month.

Tony Canales reported from the SHOT show last week that Ruger will be allowing its handguns to fall off of the California "not unsafe" firearms roster. Now we learn that Ruger isn't alone. Smith & Wesson will be allowing its M&P handguns to fall off of the roster as well.

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. . . . . . 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...

Gun ID legislation may trigger exodus of gunmakers Remington, Colt By Joshua Rhett Miller Published August 28, 2012 | FoxNews.com Two venerable American gun manufacturers — Remington and Colt — could head for the West their weapons helped win if New York and Connecticut force them to implement microstamping technology. Microstamping, or ballistic imprinting, is a patented process that uses laser technology to engrave a tiny marking of the make, model and serial number on the tip of a gun’s firing pin to allow an imprint of that information on spent cartridge cases. Supporters of the technology say it will...

Executives of the historic firearms companies on America's East Coast may not all be young men, but they might want to follow Horace Greeley's advice, anyway. They may want to go west if legislators pass laws that would limit their sales while driving up their costs. That could be the fate of the Remington Arms Company plant in Ilion, New York, the economic lifeblood of the small New York town lying halfway between Albany and Syracuse. The company's roots in the town go back nearly 200 years, since Eliphalet Remington, Jr. forged his first rifle barrel there. Today the company...

This video was made to show how easy it would be to make a gun fire using only a nail without having to harden it. I wouldn't recommend this nail to be used for repeated use without hardening.

Together with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Codes Committee Chair Joseph Lentol, we announced on June 20 passage of the Crime Gun Identification Act of 2012 that would require all new semiautomatic handguns sold in New York State, by 2014, to be microstamped with a unique code which is transferred to shell casings when the gun is fired. “Microstamping is a technological advancement that will not only help law enforcement officials investigate gun-related crimes, but will also act as a prevention tool to combat gun trafficking and reduce gun violence across New York,” said Silver. “Gun violence has caused great...

Like a storm that returns stronger each time, efforts to push micro-stamping regulations onto gun-owning Americas are here again. And this time around, The New York Times is pushing it, Time magazine is pushing it and other outlets of the same political persuasion are doing their level best to show us how micro-stamping the firing pins in our firearms could reduce crime by miraculous levels overnight. Of course, they don’t mention the gun registration, the new powers of gun taxation or the all-out gun bans associated with the scheme. Nor are they bothered with another major sticking point — micro-stamping...