Posted on 10/02/2020 8:17:25 AM PDT by marktwain
Earlier this week, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that requires newer model handguns in California to be microstamped.
Gun manufacturers and firearm advocates denounced the decision, noting that it not only violates Second Amendment rights and would increase black market activity and and non-registered weapons in the state, but would also hurt economically during a time of economic downturn.
Assemblyman David Chiu. (Photo: Kevin Sanders for California Globe) Assembly Bill 2847, authored by Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco), specifically notes that microstamping, which imprints tiny markings on cartridges that had been fired from the weapon for quicker police identification, will have to be in at least one part of the interior of the handgun, replacing the current law of having it on two or more places that had been deemed difficult by gun manufacturers and law enforcement alike. The bill will also quicken the process of having more microstamped guns instead of non-microstamped guns in circulation by removing three non-compliant handguns from the state roster of sellable handguns for every new, AB 2847 following model added to the list.
For any new handgun joining the state roster, it will also need to have a chamber load indicator and a magazine disconnect mechanism in addition to the microstamp.
Assemblyman Chiu wrote the bill to increase the percentage of identifiable microstamped guns in California and reduce the number of black market firearms in the state, helping police solve firearm related crimes quicker.
“This is a bill that will assist law enforcement in solving gun-related crimes via using micro-stamping technology and reduce the number of accidental gun deaths and injuries,” said Assemblyman Chiu (D-San Francisco) earlier this year.
(Excerpt) Read more at californiaglobe.com ...
That’s the serial number, which is normally stamped or rolled on displacing the steel and also increasing the density of it. If it’s cut in like most AR builds are these days it can’t be lifted out.
They are referring here to micro stamping the shell casing when its fired, either by the firing pin or in the chamber back next to it, so the bullet seats itself when fired and self stamps. Either way it is easy enough to remove, or even on the chamber wall as the shell casing slams against it during ignition causing it to expand in the chamber.
So gee, using a catch sock to collect your used brass, and dropping an empty you found on the street or at a target range, would give them headaches but who’s got the 3 seconds it takes to think about the multiple work arounds of this for even a stupid criminal.
They already have guns in California that are permitted to be sold to law enforcement personnel only. They’ll just carve out another exemption for those preferred people such as BLM, Antifa, and their guards.
When I bought a handgun in Maryland @2002, the gun shop had to send a spent cartridge to the state patrol “as a means of identifying the owner of the gun”. Several years later, that law was rescinded because not one single criminal was convicted using that information, and the state patrol was tired of storing and cataloguing the thousands and thousands of casings.
The dictators in California know that this isn’t about crime control, but citizen control.
So what is the serial number for?
No, you are misunderstanding. The filing on the gun being proposed is the device that stamps the soft brass cartridge with a unique identifier to show which unique firearm expended this cartridge when it was fired.
If the part of the firearm that is capable of stamping that unique identifier has been obliterated by removing the stamping die, then there is literally nothing ever stamped into the cartridge to be recovered by any means, chemical or otherwise.
This bill modifies the existing law from currently requiring that the firearm stamp TWO unique identifiers on the expended cartridge to just ONE identifier in 2022, based on the theory it supposedly will make it less complicated for gun manufacturers to introduce firearms that meet the state’s firearms’ specification, all so the State of California can proceed to test and certify more guns that meet their requirements, and thus remove more “obsolete” non-stamping guns from the list at the rate of three older guns for each new approved gun. At that rate, through the law of diminishing returns, using this negative feedback system, eventually the state would get to just ONE approved firearm that would be legal to sell in California.
All based on a specious theory that crimes can be solved by finding expended brass on the floor of a crime scene that would lead authorities to the buyer of the gun used in the crime, and therefore the perpetrator, ignoring that most such crime used guns are stolen. Expended brass is seldom if ever been used to solve a crime. A criminal could also use a revolver that does not expend brass, retaining it in the cylinder, or are these brilliant minds in California’s legislator going to pass legislation requiring criminals to deposit expended revolver brass in a convenient drop box, placed by the state for expended brass recycling at all crime scenes? Why not have a convenient fingerprint pad by the exit door and require all perpetrators leave an imprint of both hands as they exit? Oh, and please, spit into this tissue paper and deposit it into the appropriate sanitary receptical on your way out. . . Don’t forget to snarl for our camera, too.
No one has thought about the 5th amendment, not to mention 1st amendment implications of forcing shooters to PRINT something against their will. This is, after all, enforced speech, to imPRINT, something on these cartridges every time the gun is fired. YOU WILL SAY THIS when you pull the trigger, using this PRING PRESS, or Type writer on this cartridge. You MUST sign your imprint here. You have no choice in the matter if you want to exercise your 2nd amendment rights. The unconstitutionality of this is violating many constitutional rights.
Realistically, mandatory serial numbers are a means of government control, so that ordinary people can be forbidden from having legal guns.
One of the ideas, is if a gun is used in a crime, and the gun is traced back to the legal owner (mandatory gun registration), then the gun owner will be found criminally responsible.
The idea is to keep making gun ownership more onerous and legally dangerous, so as to render gun owners a small, politically ineffective minority.
Maybe I have should have included a sarcasm tag.....
Wow. Thank you for the thoughtful and informative post. You’ve explained it so even I can understand.
Won’t stand a court test.
Someone will market a device or service to remove the factory microstamp and replace it with a message of your choice.
I have faith in American ingenuity.
Yes... ;-)
Federal regulations related to serial numbering have also been used against firearms manufacturers. A few years back (IIRC), one of the major AR makers got into 'hot water' with Uncle Sam, for producing lower receivers that lacked serial numbers. The receivers were held in reserve by the manufacturer, to replace other receivers that might be returned for replacement under warranty. For example, if AR lower with serial number S12345 was returned by the owner, and could not be repaired, then (1) the defective unit would be destroyed, (2) the old serial number would be applied to a 'blank' lower, and (3) the new lower with SN S12345 would be shipped to the owner. For some reason I do not recall, the feds took exception to that process.
On the plus side, the application of serial numbers to firearms can have benefits, in terms of identifying safety issues, design changes, etc. Early Springfield 1903 rifle receivers were apparently subject to failure under certain conditions; Rock Island Arsenal improved the heat treatment process at SN 285,507, and changed to an improved steel alloy at SN 319,921 (which is worth knowing, if you own an RIA 1903). Ruger made some major design changes to their 9mm P-series pistols, beginning at SN 304-70000, which you should know before buying magazines (or trying to swap to a Ruger factory .30 Luger barrel - ask me how I know ;^).
Serial numbers (when they exist) may be of interest to collectors, as well. A gun owner down in Texas had inherited his dad's Winchester Model 70 (which had been purchased from the 'Coast to Coast' hardware store in Durango, Colorado), and used it for years as his 'truck gun'. At some point he looked at the serial number, and realized that he owned the very first Model 70 ever produced (Serial Number 1), which was apparently worth in excess of $100,000...
I got it!.......Micro stamping adds nothing more to serial numbers which already track buyers and owbers............Sheesh!
Actually, my post was more a reminder that serial numbers are useful for a lot of things, OTHER THAN "tracking buyers and owners". Long before the federal government started requiring SNs on firearms, a lot of manufacturers used them to track production, aid record keeping, and improve customer service. Although not mentioned in my previous post, serial numbers can also help a buyer or owner determine the legal status of a firearm (for example, whether it's a legal "antique" that may not require transfer through an FFL, or possibly a "curio & relic", which can be sold directly to most people with a C&R collector's FFL). I find firearm SNs very useful, and I don't "track" anyone...
;^)
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