Posted on 10/13/2022 11:36:35 AM PDT by aimhigh
Bullets found at a crime scene do not have serial numbers to match to a firearm. However they can still often be forensically matched to it anyway. While having serial numbers may sometimes help solve crimes involving guns, a lot of things could that are not required of citizens. For example a requirement to always carry a specific mobile device like a smart phone that leaves a GPS trail.
I wonder if this is more to do with possession of a firearm with a number that had been altered in the past, as opposed to doing the actual obliteration.
I see that issue come up once in a while on gun collecting forums...especially with military M1911 pistols, many of which “disappeared” after WW1 and between the wars. The “UNITED STATES PROPERTY” markings were often ground or drawfiled off, but sometimes prior owners took off the serial number as well.
Exactly. You trace the gun, and go to the owner who says...”you found it where? Let me look in my drawer’.
Unheard of to solve a crime with a serial number.
Editorializing in the report much?
“... if it isn’t overturned upon appeal, would strip away an important tool for law enforcement in investigating gun crimes...”
They missed a great opportunity .... to use ..... the big word
A L L E G E D L Y
The penalty for removing a pillow tag is *nasty*.
The only person I could think of is a straw purchaser who is buying it for a criminal and doesn’t want the firearm traced to them.
Because it would be virtually impossible for the government to maintain a registry of firearms without it.
If the Supreme Court were to agree with this judge, I would remove every serial number from every firearm I own within hours. I would never buy another firearm with a serial number.
FFLs are required to turn over their records to the ATF at such time as they go out of business. You can bet that the ATF has many records of the firearms I own. Also, the state of California has records of almost all of my firearms. The requirement for serial numbers is a big time infringement.
The one-step Bruen test does not allow the government to justify anti-gun laws based on usefulness to the government. We definitely live in interesting times.
When I first read the Bruen decision, I felt a letdown because I didn't see what I anticipated. Part of that was that the term "strict scrutiny", which I thought would be necessary for a useful decision wasn't there.
Since that first reading I have come to appreciate what Clarence Thomas has provided. Thomas has given us a one-step test instead of a two-step test.
The first step is to determine whether the law burdens the right of the people to keep and bear arms in a way which is not supported by history and tradition from the time of the passage of the Second Amendment.
The second step, which has now been eliminated, would allow the government to argue that the law is important to the government. The second step has been ELIMINATED.
In this case, there isn't going to be any history or tradition at the time of the nation's founding of requiring serial numbers on firearms. I saw this possibility coming many months ago but I thought it might be years before anybody challenged the serial number laws.
Several years ago I actually recovered five stolen firearms identified as belonging to me due to the serial numbers. I would gladly have sacrificed that couple thousand dollars if it meant I could have my freedom and privacy with respect to firearm ownership back.
Sounds like an opportunity to use some of the modern encryption algorithms to put a number on a gun which the owner could use to identify the gun but that the government could not use to register the gun.
According to the Warren Commission report, Oswald bought by mail order the rifle that allegedly killed Kennedy. Cost was less than $22.
Imagine that the manufacturer included with the gun a separate, small metal medallion with an encryption string that matches the firearm. You keep the firearm at home in your safe. You keep the medallion in your safe deposit box or at your lawyers office. If you need warranty work, the medallion acts as your "pink slip" or proof of title.
If the gun is stolen, show the medallion to the police. They can use the encryption number to get the firearm back to you.
I believe that what is called "touch DNA" allows identification of a person from the DNA in a fingerprint found on the trigger or surface of a firearm. I wonder if the conditions in the chamber will still allow DNA to be collected from an ejected cartridge case?
Tracking of DNA probably represents a bigger threat to our privacy than tracking of firearm serial numbers or tracking of cell phone signals.
Hmm, granted one can’t leave their DNA at home like they can their cell phone, still gps tells way more about a person’s movements including rather precise time place and route...presuming of course they were carrying the device. They are both very useful tools to investigators though.
Besides the reason mentioned the government has no need.
Still none of the Governments business.
Good idea.
The firearm should be stamped with only the mfg mo/yr to help with warranties or safety recalls thus leaving individual firearm ID pretty much unobtainable. In addition, allow the end purchasers to set the encryption string in the medallion by themselves and protect ownership in that manner.
There goes the 1968 Gun Control Act.
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