Dangerous Use of Serial Numbers Found Unconstitutional

AmmoLand ^ | November 13, 2022 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

The most dangerous use of a serial number on a firearm is as a registration number. In effect, gun registration is gun confiscation. It was not the intent for which serial numbers were made. They were created to track firearms with production changes and as a way for government arsenals to track the production and military use of weapons.

A federal court recently held a law passed in 1990, which makes possessing a firearm with a removed serial (registration) number illegal, is unconstitutional.

This is an important decision. It has relatively minor effects at this time. The law was a step toward universal firearms registration.

Finding the law unconstitutional subverts the push for government control over firearms.

Suppose a person cannot be punished for merely possessing a firearm from which a serial number has been removed. In that case, the entire scheme for government control over legally owned firearms falls apart.

There cannot be effective gun registration if a person cannot be punished for possessing a gun with the serial number removed.

The legal ability to possess firearms without serial numbers buttresses the deterrent effect of an armed population.

If government agents demand a person turn in a firearm that is registered to them, they can remain silent.

If the firearm appears at some later date, and the serial number has been removed, it becomes difficult to connect the firearm to the person it was registered to.

It becomes difficult to punish a person for an act someone else commits with a firearm originally purchased by them.

A unique serial number is a key to efforts to register and control firearms by the administrative state. Nelson T. “Pete” Shields of Handgun Control, inc. laid out the plan in 1976:

[marktwain]

If a person cannot be punished for possession of a firearm from which the serial number has been removed, the entire scheme of government control of the ownership if firearms falls apart.

It was always unconstitutional.

[Travis McGee]

[Tupelo]

“It was always unconstitutional.”

True. However we now live in a post constitutional country.
So.....................

[Travis McGee]

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

If the West Virginia decision stands, I’ll be getting my Dremel tool some new bits.

[FredSchwartz]

Check out the chart. All of the countries are Central and South America except 1. Yet we have open borders and wonder why the crime rate goes up.

[Coffee... Black... No Sugar]

Click

[Yo-Yo]

We shall see if this ruling:

1) Survives appeal to the Fourth Circuit, and

B) Gets incorporated to the states, some of whom have their own firearm serial number and registration schemes. (I am a Michigander and all of my handguns are registered by State law with the Michigan State Police.)

[Travis McGee]

Sam Francis, “Anarcho Tyranny.”

https://www.unz.com/sfrancis/anarcho-tyranny-where-multiculturalism-leads/

It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.

[Travis McGee]

Note of interest: Just grinding off the surface layer of metal does not erase the numbers. The impact of the numbering die leaves changes in the subsurface structure of the metal that can be used to discover the “erased” serial number.

So, anybody doing this, in some hypothetical un-free country, should first smack the crap out of the serial number with metal-working “center punches” and chisels. THEN grind off the mess.

[WKUHilltopper]

This

[Bikkuri]

I’m curious.. I know that there are procedures that can bring the serial number back if it has been scraped off.
But, it you actually drilled out (totally penetrated) the serial number, would the gun still be structurally sound?
If not, would it be safe to refill the hole with a weld?

[LouAvul]

The whole concept is idiotic. Grinding the metal destroys the temper. Relieving the metal creates a weak point.

Why anybody would seriously consider disfiguring a firearm in that manner is curious.

Then again, I collect older pinned and recessed Smith and Wesson revolvers.

[Trinity5]

If anyone is at the point of trying to remove a serial number on a gun there is obviously a much bigger issue at hand wouldn’t you agree?

[LouAvul]

Clearly, but anyone who would deface and, possibly destroy, a perfectly good firearm merely to protest govt, is silly. Cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face, so to speak.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Good advice. I'm good at woodworking (quite good actually) and have only a fleeting relationship with metal work. Though, I'd like to get into forging someday.

Thanks.

[PapaBear3625]

Better would be to mill out the piece of the frame where the serial number was, if the resulting hole does not compromise the structure of the frame.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

An interesting discussion. For starters grinding the number off, if done slowly, would not necessarily draw the temper. If the grinding is done fast and hot....then the temper is affected. Plus proper cooling at the site would help a lot.

Also, as Travis noted in post #10, simply grinding off the surface characters would not be entirely sufficient.

As for 'why would anybody do that'? It's not a today type of thing but certainly might become more of a necessity as this nation slides into totalitarianism.

[VicVanleeuwenhoek]

To your comment , I agree.

[Travis McGee]

Every man over 25 should have a good center-punch with a hardened tip. They have a million uses, cost just a few bucks.

Sometimes you just need to impact the crap out of something stuck to make it budge, and the point on the center punch will sort of dig in, and not slip off when you give it a solid smack with your hammer.

Or, for drilling a hole in an exact spot on a skittery piece of hard stainless steel, use the punch to make a little "guide" impression divot for your first small drill tip to find, so it doesn't skate off the mark.