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Posted on 08/10/2006 9:23:55 AM PDT by calcowgirl
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William J. Bratton added their support Wednesday to a bill requiring gun manufacturers to build handguns that would stamp bullet casings with serial numbers — an innovation intended to speed investigations by making it easier to link bullets to the weapons that fired them.
The bill, introduced by Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood), would only affect the manufacture of new semiautomatic handguns, but Bratton and others said it would aid officers in investigating gun violence.
Speaking to reporters at a City Hall news conference, Villaraigosa added his "support for this strong public safety measure."
Proponents say the etching technology would imprint each gun's serial number on bullet casings when the firing pin of the weapon struck the cartridge. They argue that such microscopic imprinting could not be easily tampered with because other identifying marks would reveal what gun fired the bullet.
By cross-checking bullet casings with existing state databases on gun purchases, authorities say they could quickly figure out what gun had fired the bullets recovered from a crime scene.
Opponents complain that the bill would do little to deter criminals, and even Bratton acknowledged that only a small percentage of Los Angeles gun crime is caused by criminals using properly registered weapons.
(snip)
As introduced, the legislation (AB 352) would affect only new semiautomatic handguns. Asked why it did not cover other handguns, neither Villaraigosa nor Koretz could answer, and Bratton said he had asked the same question.
A staff member interjected that authors had elected to focus on semiautomatics because they eject shells while revolvers do not.
As a result, shootings with semiautomatics more often result in shells left behind for police to investigate.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
So criminals turn to revolvers as the weapon of choice. Or pick up their spent casings. Or change the firing pin. Meanwhile law abiding citizens bear the brunt of a ridiculous new law.
What dopes.
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This is a workaround to the defeat of various misguided "anti-gun" legislation. Eg; suing mfrs out of business. This is attempting to force gun mfrs into a costly round (NPI) of re-engineering and retooling of existing and in most cases perfectly functional weapons. Gee, criminals are going to seek out the serial number punching guns, aren't they?/s And what are the failure modes for guns that intentionally deform the round when fired? Misfires, anyone? ADs? This piece of stupidity will kill or maim as many or more shooters of said weapons (which will be LEOs or legit target shooters) as it will help catch perps.
Is this the ridiculous idea I heard bandied about some time ago that would cost a gazillion dollars to implement and raise the cost of ammo to about 5 bucks per shell?
Idiots plain and simple. The fact that people in a position of authority have such a low IQ is frightening.
The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute, Inc. states:
"Criminals will easily defeat the technology. As with 'ballistic imaging,' criminals can and will easily defeat the 'micro-stamping' technology by simply filing away or scratching with a steel/wire brush the surface of the firearm where the laser engraving has been placed. Criminals will do this for the same reason they deface the serial number on firearms (which reportedly has significantly increased in recent years) to avoid detection by law enforcement.
Criminals will be able to confuse the police and send them on 'wild goose' chases by simply throwing around at crime scenes expended cartridge casings (having a make model and serial number imprinted on them) from other firearms. Expended shell casings are widely available at shooting ranges all across California.
Criminals will also use reloaded ammunition made from previously expended cartridge cases already having a make, model and serial number imprinted on them. In both cases, there appears to be a real risk that innocent civilians will be arrested by law enforcement on suspicion of having been involved in criminal shootings.
Criminals can avoid the technology by simply using firearms that do not eject shell casings, i.e., revolvers, thus leaving no casing at the crime scene."
Duh,
A quick firing pin change and your good idea just became a joke.
Public safety begins in the voting booth.
Sadly, most voters don't even realize or take that into account when they cast their votes.
To do this it would be necessary to modify the chamber so the shell casing would expand into indentations of the chamber. To foil this would be very simple by filling in the area with metal. However, the vast majority of the weapons used in crime are stolen and it would not be possible to link the bad guy back to the weapon.
This proposal is pure Bravo Sierra.
Boy, the writing at the Latte slime continues to baffle.
Is the proposed AB 352 a municipal or state law? IIRC there are no major semi-auto pistol mfr.'s in Cali,I presume that this is a backdoor attempt to ban handguns.
Looking for that Brady A+ rating.
This bill (AB 352) and another bill (SB 357) were both introduced a year ago.
The latter would tag ammunition.
You can track back using keywords noted in the thread, above.
It's proposed state law. I think it's fair to say that it's an attempt to ban more handguns.
You can read the legislation (or the analyses) from this link:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=ab_352&sess=CUR&house=B&author=koretz
Whoever dreams this stuff up has the mentality of Barbara Boxer.
Talk about a bullet with your name on it...
How's that work?
The up front costs - financial and political - would pretty well sink this idea, but I wonder - purely curiosity you understand - how they would compare to what is already spent by law enforcement trying to track a weapon after the fact.
I also note that this does nothing more than give a point of origin for the weapon, though a correlation of such data with crimes might turn up a few bad apples in the pipeline.
I expect to be seriously yelled at for this post.
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