California Senate Passes Ballistics Identification Bill to Help Police Solve Gun Crimes - AB-352

U.S. Newswire on Yahoo ^ | 8/24/06 | U.S. Newswire

[NormsRevenge]

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Aug. 24 /U.S. Newswire/ -- With the support of forty-one police chiefs from around the state, the state senate today passed a bill (22-18) that will help police solve gun crimes and catch gun traffickers The bill, AB 352, requires that a new ballistics identification technology be required on all new semiautomatic handguns sold in California after 2008.

The new technology, microstamping, uses powerful lasers to make extremely precise, microscopic engravings on a handgun's firing pin or inside the firing chamber. These engravings reference the serial number of the handgun. When a bullet is fired from the handgun, the marks are transferred to the bullet casing. So when the police retrieve the bullet casing at a crime scene, they can quickly track down the legal owner of the handgun that fired it.

Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood) is the lead sponsor on the bill, with the Coalition to Stop Handgun Violence, the organizational sponsor. A coalition of groups has been fighting to pass the bill since last year, including the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Legal Community Against Violence, Women Against Gun Violence, and the California Million Mom March Chapters along with their parent organization, the Brady Campaign.

Griffin Dix, the president of the California Million Mom March Chapters, stated, "Currently, no arrest is made in approximately 45 percent of all homicides in California because police lack the evidence they need. This bill will help police solve crime by providing them with new and meaningful leads for solving handgun crimes."

"On behalf of our law enforcement supporters and victims of crime we work with every day across the nation, I applaud the California State Senate for embracing this innovative technology. I'm hoping the Governor will listen to a fellow Republican and sign this bill once it passes," said Paul Helmke, the new president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Paul is a former three-term Republican Mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

As the nation's largest, non-partisan, grassroots organization leading the fight to prevent gun violence, the Brady Campaign, working with its dedicated network of Million Mom March Chapters, is devoted to creating an America free from gun violence, where all Americans are safe at home, at school, at work, and in our communities.

http://www.usnewswire.com/

[goldstategop]

I should say they improved on the technology that first appeared in Maryland. But as you pointed out, the end is still the same: to make it extremely costly to own a gun. The gun industry will just abandon the California market rather than put up with a pointless restriction.

( No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo!)

[RNO1]

This is what the left wants for the whole Country...That is why it is so important to not let them have either houses....To elect as many conservatives as we can and not RINO's....I think that the gun mfg should stop selling guns to any police dept or Sheriffs dept in Calif..I know for a fact that the guys out on the front line do not like it or most of them do not..I know our LEO's and Sheriff Dept here in Florida where I live would not go along with this stupid law..We do have a few chiefs in liberal areas of Florida would go along with this stupidly..When the Dems tell us they do not want our guns all we have to do is look west and a few other states and know how much they lie..

[William Tell]

I just bought a handgun. Now I'm going to have to continue buying them if this law passes up until the time the law takes effect. I have to wait 15 more days before my "one handgun per month" waiting period is over. I think I "need" a Glock 36.

This law will sell a lot of guns prior to its taking effect.

One may rest assured that the law will contain a felony classification for filing the firing pin or for importing an unmarked firing pin from Free America.

I refused to register the "black, ugly rifles" that I already owned, so I now store them out-of-state. I will never purchase a handgun with this mandated foolishness designed into it.

[BCR #226]

Reply to your post #55...

Yes, it will effect crime in Ca. It will cause it to increase. The Senate out there is creating a new black market.

On the note of manufacturers shouldn't sell to Ca... well, Ronnie Barrett took the lead in that one and his sales have gone up because of his stance. I hope all manufacturers stop selling to ANY LE or government agency that supports gun control of any kind.

I am building a C2 business and I won't be willing to sell to any LE or arm of any government, any item that isn't legal to sell to any citizen in that jurisdiction. If the government wants something I make, they damned well better be sure that any law abiding citizen can buy it in the exact same configuration without any problems or hassle.

Oh, and I don't give LE discounts.

Mike

[AngryJawa]

If the government wants something I make, they damned well better be sure that any law abiding citizen can buy it in the exact same configuration without any problems or hassle.

Good man. Hopefully other businesses will follow that model.

Look, I know that cops have a tough job dealing with the scum of society. But the answer to the problem is not to create an imbalance of weaponry and militarize every podunk police force with a SWAT team.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Yeah - Doesn't help much for (1) weapons owned by illegal owners/unlicensed owners

(2) stolen weapons from legit owners.

(3) older weapons.

...

Only weapons affected are new builds, bought legally, registered back to the owner (Oh - right... To TRACE the weapons, the SELLER has to be able to track the gun from builder to retailer to purchaser. Instant and permanent gun registration BY the legal sellers is now required by this law.)

--

remember, first thing the police did in NOLA was confiscate weapons.

[girlangler]

Thanks so much for pinging me on the gun issues.

Thought you might appreciate these links.

www.theshootingwire.com

www.theoutdoorwire.com

www.theoutdoorpressroom.com

[budwiesest]

forty-one police chiefs from around the state..are stupid elitists.

Liberal stupidity and their intolerance of individual rights rivals only the Taliban.

devoted to creating an America free from gun violence, where all Americans are safe at home, at school, at work, and in our communities.

Free From Gun--'bout says it all. Who's willing to live in police state if that what it takes to be safe? Oh, I forgot, muslims and leftists.

[Lawgvr1955]

So the red states will pass a federal law which says you can not prohibit the ownership of guns without this absudity.

You have more confidence in politicians than I do.

[Lawgvr1955]

remember, first thing the police did in NOLA was confiscate weapons.

If liberals read the 2d Amendment as broadly as they do the 1st, every law abiding person in this country would be required to carry at all times.

Cafeteria Constitutionalists I call them.

[looscnnn]

What do you care about casings if you stole the gun in the first place?

[brazzaville]

Good morning.
"So when the police retrieve the bullet casing at a crime scene, they can quickly track down the legal owner of the handgun that fired it."

So, there will be an increase in the use of revolvers in homicides and shade tree gunsmiths will do a land office business making and installing spare parts.

Try as they might to dance around it, the gun grabbers are eventually going to have to attempt a full on ban. When they do we will see what the 2nd Amendment really means.

Michael Frazier