Posted on 01/28/2009 7:50:39 PM PST by neverdem
by Jim Kouri, Law Enforcement Examiner
"Gun control fanatics, frustrated in their attempts to impose severely restrictive regulations on the gun rights of law-abiding American citizens, apparently think that if they push severe restrictions on ammunition acquisition and possession, they'll come closer to their objective of restricting if not eliminating the individual Second Amendment civil right to keep and bear arms," says John M. Snyder, named Washington's senior gun rights activist.
With a liberal Democrat now sitting in the Oval Office and both houses of the US Congress boasting Democrat majorities, lawmakers in Washington, DC and around the country are displaying renewed interest in gun control legislation, according to sources within both law enforcement and gun owner rights communities.
"Ever since the so-called 'Beltway Sniper' case in 2001, there's been talk about not just gun registration, but ammo registration. This will make it mandatory for manufacturers of firearms ammunition to number every cartridge they make and to keep records of those cartridges," said Lt. Steven Rodgers, a cop in New Jersey.
"Can't control guns? Well, they'll control the ammunition," he added during an interview with NewswithViews.com.
While a federal law is being considered by proponents of such laws, gun owners in individual states are witnessing what's referred to as Ammunition Accountability Acts being pushed through they're state legislatures by impatient lawmakers.
Ammunition Accountability, a liberal gun control organization, has developed sample legislation to achieve its purposes and reports that versions of it have been introduced in the legislatures of Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington, according to John Snyder.
While state legislatures differ in the wording of their proposed laws, basically they all require that any and all ammunition be encoded by the manufacturer and they will maintain a mandatory data base of all ammunition sales.
"We of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms oppose this backdoor approach to gun control," stated Snyder, an official with that gun rights group.
The sample legislation would stipulate that, “each year in the United States, more than 30 percent of all homicides that involve a gun go unsolved; handgun ammunition accounts for 80 percent of all ammunition sold in the United States; current technology for matching a bullet used in a crime to the gun that fired it has worked moderately well for years, but presupposes that the weapon was recovered by law enforcement;” and “bullet coding is a new and effective way for law enforcement to quickly identify persons of interest in gun crime investigations.”
"If this new proposed Ammo Accountability Act legislation is only another attempt to chip away at the 2nd Amendment, it is just plain wrong. Since the 2nd Amendment defines a citizens "right" to defend themselves, with a gun, it clearly does not address ammunition. What a novel way to "back door" the issue" said Josephine County, Oregon's Sheriff Gil Gilbertson.
"It is clearly no secret, many in our government would like to see America disarmed. Our government has authored books mapping out a strategy on how to do just that. Simply look back in history to see what happened after people lost their arms and ability to defend themselves," he told NewswithViews.com.
"Our government leaders slash funding in support of law enforcement throughout America, leaving our citizens more vulnerable - but on the other hand feel compelled to send hundreds of millions of dollars, each year, to enhance police in foreign Countries. Weaker law enforcement coupled with escalating crime is a receipt for disaster," said the career lawman.
Ammunition coding technology works by laser etching the back of each bullet with an alpha-numeric serial number. Then when a customer purchases a box of, for example, 9mm cartridges, the box of ammunition and the bullets’ coding numbers would be connected to the purchaser in a statewide or national database.
The code on the bullet can be read with a simple magnifying glass and then be run through a statewide or national database to determine who purchased the ammunition and where.
The rationale being used by proponents of such laws is that cartridges can be used to trace a gun owner who committed a crime such as murder or assault with a deadly weapon, according to the National Association for Gun Rights' Executive Director Dudley Brown.
< http://www.nationalgunrights.org/index.shtml >
But opponents of ammo registration laws counter that this will only increase the incidents of criminals collecting spent cartridges and depriving police of other evidence such as fingerprints on a cartridge left at the crime scene.
"NAGR's strategy is simple: make the enemies of our firearms freedoms pay for every inch. While many so-called "gun rights groups" work to curry favor with politicians and the media, NAGR is working aggressively to hold politicians accountable and to put a stop to gun control," said Brown.
At the federal level, H.R. 408 introduced by Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ) a new law would require firearms manufacturers to provide ballistics information on all new firearms to BATF, which would retain the information in a National Firearms Ballistics Database. Critics claim part of this bill will be used to mandate encoding ammunition, which is part and parcel of "ballistics" information.
"[Lawmakers] should ignore the media hype on the firearms issue and pay attention to what the public – their constituents – are saying on the matter,” gun rights expert John M. Snyder stated.
“According to an August poll conducted by Zogby International for Associated Television News, the American public rejects the notion that new gun control laws are needed by a two-to-one margin,” Snyder continued.
“Maybe the House of Representatives should have taken a reading of public opinion on this issue before rushing headlong without a roll call vote to pass a bill before the recess,” said Snyder, who is a firearms advisor for the National Association of Chiefs of Police. < http://www.expertclick.com/NewsReleaseWire/default.cfm?Action=ViewMyNews&NRWID=6042 >
It would provide that, after a specific date, all handgun and “assault weapon” ammunition manufactured or sold in the state shall be coded by the manufacturer, and would include a list of all calibers covered by the coding requirement. It would mandate the disposal by a certain date of all non-coded ammunition listed, whether owned by private citizens or retail outlets.
It's nice to be a member of the top 10% for a change.
I'm not the original poster of that information, but it is mentioned here, on a Gunowners.org forum(^), as being a concern of the GOA in 1996.
BTW: the little identification bits are called taggants, and iirc, already exists in larger explosives like dynamite.
Quote from the article on the forum:
Some in Congress felt that the taggants study was written carefully enough to gut the provision. That is, they say the study will be conducted by private industries, rather than the government. While this is certainly to be preferred (rather than having the BATF conduct the study), it still amounts to a compromise. Gun owners need to hold accountable the legislators who voted for this "compromise." Once these legislators have voted IN FAVOR of a taggants provision, it may be more difficult for them to vote against one in the future. Besides, what happens if technology improves one day and taggants really do become safe? Will these pro-gun Congressmen then swallow the idea of tracing gunpowder and registering ammunition?
Simple solution is to pour out the powder and replace it with a like amount of powder from your shotgun shells, etc.
Please don't do that. But if you must, don't stand near me at the range. :)
I sold all of my guns when Obama was sworn-in. I won’t need them now.
>I sold all of my guns when Obama was sworn-in. I won’t need them now.
A lot of them did that. Others lost them in tragic ice-fishing accidents, or sold to that nameless guy in the gun shop parking lot.
LQ
Indeed, I can think of several.
I'm not certain, but I think this is another case of someone who knows nothing about guns misusing the word "bullet". AFAIK, they're proposing to put the microstamp or laser engraving on the head of the brass cartridge case, not the heel of the projectile.
To make a long story short, when the sheite hits the fan, there will be several cops dead in the first few minutes sans weapons, and many Natl. Guard armories broken into by the next day. He wasn't kidding. Some of his exploits were in some bad places in S. America and Africa. He said why pay for guns that will be taken away because they know you have them when you can get the government to pay for them and maintain them for you until you need them?
I'm not sure how far the government wants to take this stuff, but I'm also not sure where the "last straw" or the "hair that broke the camels back", is quite yet.
I do know that many here seem to think they won't give up their guns, but I know England, New Zealand, and Australia seem to hand theirs over quite easily. I don't know where that invisible line is that so many say they won't cross. Ruby Ridge was just a first, then came Waco. When the BATF is killing your family, will their be any help coming, or will we all watch the 6 o'clock news and say "They must have been some of them "gun nuts". As radical as Idaho is in some places, they just carried signs outside the perimeter while a mans family was slaughtered.
Good Points.
Don’t forget New Orleans during Katrina. Lots of people willingly handed over their guns... or I should say, lots of law-abiding people did.
Actually, both plans are being pushed - the gun stamping the cartridge case as it's fired, and laser-engraving serial numbers on bullets.
As usual, these "crime control" measures wouldn't impact the actual criminals at all, and would in fact create many, many new criminals out of otherwise law-abiding Americans.
I agree. The Russians were a lot of things. Backward, technologically inferior tyrannical, oppressive ... and they were not stupid. As a matter of fact, given all their weaknesses, sometimes we were playing checkers while they were playing chess. Leftist in this country, on the other hand, depend on stupidity. It is required in order to advance the left, and misinformed “useful idiots” are the backbone of the Democratic Party.
My guess is that about 90% of them will give up and then shut up. Everybody talks in such hushed tones about the new american Revolution or the next Civil War. Not going to happen. This country will roll over and expire with but a small whimper. We did it to ourselves. The proof is in our society and in Christian eschatology. Think about it. If you're the prince of Darkness and you want your minions to gain control of an entire society and you're willing to wait generations what is the surest path to success? Education of course. You infiltrate all levels of education, public and private, nationwide. Then you gradually substitute your agenda for the traditional values already in place. At some point within, say, 40 or 50 years you look around and realize you're running things. If you're wildly successful, the stuff you demonize has spread like a cancer to the population and that has happened in the cases about gun control. In order to survive, our population will agree to surgical removal of the cancer.
We had better wake up, look at this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTq2NEUlhDE
I recognize that I am somewhat exposed as to powder, primer and cap; but I'm working on that.
Welcome to the 19th century.
count me in
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