Googled from "PoliceOne.com" 07/27/2004
Ammunition Coding System - A Revolutionary Way to Identify Bullets
Almost every day you can open your local newspaper and read a story about a shooting where no evidence is left, except the victim and a bullet. According to the Untied States Department of Justice, there is at least a 37% chance of never finding a killer in a crime involving a firearm. By making the bullet itself a more useable piece of evidence (without having to also find the gun) we can greatly increase the chance that law enforcement will solve more crimes.
Ravensforge has developed a patent pending technology: the Ammunition Coding System ("ACS"). ACS will assign a unique code to every bullet sold. By maintaining a record of purchases of ammunition, law enforcement personnel will be able to easily trace the ownership of any ammunition involved in a crime.
The ballistic fingerprinting system which is currently under consideration is an alternative plan to ACS. However, ballistic fingerprinting has many weaknesses. Most importantly, it won't deal with the millions of guns currently owned. It is estimated that at any given point in time there is only a four to five year supply of ammunition in the marketplace. Because of these ongoing sales, ACS will provide current and updated information on all ammunition users. This information won't be available if gun ownership is used as the primary source of identification.
In 1992, approximately 5.4 billion bullets were sold in the US alone. It is safe to assume that this number is trending upward. We estimate that 8-10 billion bullets were sold in the US in 2002. ACS has the capacity to accommodate this rate of sales for decades to come without duplicating the codes.
The design of our engraving system will allow law enforcement personnel to identify the code on a bullet, if even as little as 20% of the base remains intact. Since bullets are designed for the base to remain solid and in its original shape, the probability of our codes being legible after use is very high. Tests have shown a 99% success rate in determining the code after firing the coded ammunition.
We are soliciting ideas on how to implement ACS, as well as recommendations for improvements to its use or design. We will be happy to meet with you to further discuss and explain this unique and potentially valuable system to aid law enforcement professionals.
I think the libcops will scream to high heaven for this.
Although the logistics of marking "5.4 billion bullets" a year sounds rather ambitious, and if it's done by laser then there will be lots of onerous regulation and safety concerns around THAT.
"Using 70 grains (0.16 oz. 4.54 g) as an arbitrarily assumed average bullet mass allows the estimation that the 85-118 million pounds of bullet lead produces about 8.5- 11.8 billion bullets per year
In any case the laser-tagging is going to involve rather large serial numbers; i.e. cal; plant; yr of mfr; type of bullet;etc. etc. Seems to be a rather cumbersome database. Seems that all surplus ammo would immediately become contraband as well as the stockpiled personal ammo. Special permits all around doncha know for wheel weights, smelters, molds, solder, and oh yeah all those printed circuit boards with solder that could be salvaged,etc.
My goodness!! I forgot all about steel ball bearings from scrap yards. Sounds to me like a super-size ATF in the making. Just like your novel's STU gruppen fuhrer's ambitions.