Posted on 10/29/2004 9:29:52 PM PDT by Travis McGee
LASER ETCHING IDENTIFICATION PROPOSED FOR HANDGUN AMMO
If a proposal from the California Attorney General's Office is enacted, all handgun ammunition possessed in public or sold or imported into the nation's most populous state will be laser etched with an individual serial number.
TRhe high-tech tracking system would require all cartridges in a box packaged for retail sale to have matching identification numbers. The package would be scanned and the information linked to the identity of the purchaser.
The micro-stamping system used to etch the serial numbers was developed by Seattle-based Ravensforge Inc., whose technology was subjected to a successful torture test supervised by Randy Rossi, director of the firearms division of the California Dept. of Justice.
"WE TRIED TO PROVE THIS DOESN'T WORK."
Two hundred rounds were fired at close range into automobile doors, wood and concrete walls, ballistic vests, rubber matting and gelatin blocks simulating the density of human tissue. Of the 181 slugs recovered, including soft lead bullets that flattened upon impact, the etched code numbers were identified on all but one round by a standard electronic microscope.
"We tried to prove this doesn't work," said Rossi. "To have it work virtually every time, I was very surprised."
The calibers tested included 9mm, .38, .40 and .45, but not .22, the most popular sporting caliber in California and throughout the nation.
Rossi and his colleagues believe by tracking ammunition they will have a powerful and accurate weapon in identifying the source of criminal use of firearms.
"THIS WON'T SOLVE EVERY CRIME, BUT IT WILL SOLVE A LOT OF CRIMES."
Rossi emphasized that the proposal would exempt sport shooters who reload their own cartridges.
"We could get some gang bangers who all of a sudden take an interest and study reloading, but I hardly think so," said Rossi. "These are the same people who won't even bother to put a glove on when they're committing a crime. This won't solve every crime, but it will solve a lot of crmes."
GARY MEHALIK, the marketing director for the NSSF, warned that until the technology could be applied to .22 caliber ammunition it would be far from universally effective. Coupled with the estimated cost of one cent or less per etching, Mehalik was skeptical of the technology's practicality.
"We'd have to analyze teh costs," said Mehalik, "but I can tell you that it would create a logistical nightmare inside the current production systems."
Whew, that's a relief!
Post 41 perhaps?
What you suggest will be a felony on par with converting a semi auto to a full auto.
Micro "taggants" will be blended right into the "legal" bullet lead.
Sooner or later, there will also have to be an accounting with the officers of the Quisling companies. Their hands are not clean in this.
AMMUNITION REGISTRATION.
Criminal gang-bangers set on committing murder won't be bothered by pulling their bullets and filing off the numbers and replacing them. What's that violation on top of murder?
This bullet registration is aimed at LAW ABIDING gun owners, who won't risk the felony of "possession of unregistered ammunition.
Kinda contradictory, isn't it? I know that the Ca. DOJ has a list of every firearm I own. Even though we don't formally register our guns, every purchase made in California must go through an FFL, including purchases made from private parties. The background check info goes to the CDOJ. They keep it in a database.
California does not have a RTKBA amendment in its state constitution, and the 9th Circuit Court of tyrants has ruled that there is NO individual right to keep and bear arms. Every year the state legislature introduces and passes a slew of new gun control legislation. This is just the first proposal for the new legislative year. These people won't rest until firearm and ammo sales are virtually halted.
YOu've got it. More reasons to BLOAT!
Logic and rational thought doesn't factor in to the gun banners "thinking" process. It is about control.
Another click of the handcuff ratchet on our freedom.
Sooner or later, there will be an accounting with the Quislings.
And I see an easy way around this thing. CA is the only state in the SW that will require the etching, so anyone planning to commit a crime with a gun can simply drive over the line into AZ or NV and buy his ammo.
Of course any handloader can cast his own lead bullets for target shooting and plinking if he doesn't want to buy ammo loaded with etched bullets. I have loaded hand-cast lead bullets in .45acp and .45 Colt handloads I used for small game hunting, and they worked just as well as factory jacketed bullets on small critters like rabbits and armadillos. Cast lead bullets in rifle ammo also work well on large game in the proper calibers like .45-70 and such. I have never used them for that purpose, but a lot of old timers like Elmer Keith swore by them. In fact, all big game taken before smokeless propellant came on the market was killed by cast lead bullets.
99% of CA shooters will probably just buy the serial numbered ammo and grouch about it. But I'm pretty sure some will refuse to submit to this scheme designed primarily (I suspect) just to raise the cost of ammo and thereby reduce the amount sold and used by recreational shooters. I suspect anything proposed by a CA state official to be another nefarious scheme for suppressing private firearms ownership and use.
IMHO, truer words were never spoken. It is the gun owners who need to be completely aware of the downside of 'reasonable' modifications to the paradigm.
You want what tees me off almost more than the gun banning tyrants? It's gun owners that I know who won't get into the fight. They complain about the laws and restrictions, but when the legislature has something new they're cooking up, they can't be bothered to even pick up the stinkin' phone and make a call.
Example: Gov. Arnold signed the bill banning .50 BMG rifles. I don't own, don't plan to, but it's an incremental slice. So, I faxxed the committees. When it got out of committe, I faxxed and phoned my so-called reps. When it passed the state senate and assembly, I called and emailed the governator. At the same time, I made a point to call some people I know to do the same. One of these people was visiting the other evening, and the topic of .50 BMG's came up, as my husband and he were perusing the shotgun news and saw an ad for a .50. Hubby mentioned that they're banned in California starting Jan. 1. Whaaaaattt? Shock. Didn't know. Was I ever steamed.
PAY ATTENTION, DAMMIT!
If this passes, I foresee more trips to Reno for my hubby and me.
I don't think it's verbatim, but it's pretty close. :0)
It's the death of a thousand cuts. Boiling the frog.
In fifty years, our grandkids will need to fill out a form a month in advance to check their "legal" revolver and ten rounds of ammo out of the police vault for an hour at a "legal" police range to exercise their "RKBA."
You're looking at the result.
I was looking at Lockyear's possible objective(s).
You see an insidious plot by our AG.
I see more misguided, feel good incompetence from an AG w/ a law degree from MatchBook U.
Lockyear's stupidity/incompetence knows no bounds.
Exactly right Travis. I have been shooting since grandpa taught me to shoot his single shot .22 rifle on the farm in 1946. I would bet dollars to doughnuts that I have seen 999 of those 1000 cuts made since that time.
I know you young bucks won't believe this, but I can remember very well when anyone who looked old enough to the clerk could walk into any hardware store in FL, plunk down $30, and walk out with a shiny new Iver Johnson or H&R revolver. I bought my first .22 revolver that way when I was 18. If anybody had suggested a background check or waiting period for buying gun he would have been ridden out of our little town on a rail. In spite of all the guns in that county, AFAIK the only gun crime in the years I lived there was when a deputy shot an innocent man in the back who he thought was an escapee from the county road gang.
The result will be the same.
Who cares what the motives were of the Jewish police in Warsaw, who called out and marched Jews to the train station?
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