Free Republic

When it comes to political flips, it would be tough to beat the acrobatics of Assemblyman Leland Yee. In the final 48 hours of the Legislature's 2006 session, the San Francisco Democrat managed to both brag about co-authoring a landmark gun control bill and then, at the urging of Republican gun fans, turn around and help kill the very same bill. The measure, AB352 by Democratic Assemblyman Paul Koretz of West Hollywood, would have required new semiautomatic handguns sold in California to leave a microscopic number on the back of shell casings, to make it easier to identify the offending...

Cars are easier to trace than guns, says Pacific Grove Police Chief Carl Miller. But new technology, he hopes, might change that. Vehicle identification numbers follow cars from owner to owner all the way back to the production line. But many handgun traces don't go that far because not all states require firearm registration, Miller says. "With firearms, I would say 40 percent of what we find is unregistered." Matching a bullet casing stamp to a handgun's serial number could change that. For the last two years, California legislators have pushed bills backing microstamping technology that would do just that....

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,...

Children under the age of 8 must be restrained in a child seat while traveling in a vehicle, under a bill sent Thursday to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The bill's author, Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, said her measure would bring California in compliance with recommendations of the National Transportation Safety Board. Vehicle-related accidents are the highest cause of deaths for 6- and 7-year-olds, she said. Existing state law requires that children younger than 6 years old or less than 60 pounds sit in a booster seat. Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, described the measure as government "nannyism." The 6-foot-4 lawmaker said...

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...

California could become the first state in the nation to require semi-automatic handguns include microscopic equipment for pressing an identifying mark into every bullet fired. Through newly developed technology, the firing pin of a semi-automatic weapon can stamp the gun's make and model onto a bullet shell as it leaves the chamber. The technology could help police investigate homicides and trace gun trafficking. Thirty-three California police chiefs and two county sheriffs support a bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, that would require the markers. "It has the potential to solve some significant crimes in some pretty large numbers,"...

Knight Ridder Newspapers WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - California could become the first state in the nation to require semi-automatic handguns include microscopic equipment for pressing an identifying mark into every bullet fired. Through newly developed technology, the firing pin of a semi-automatic weapon can stamp the gun's make and model onto a bullet shell as it leaves the chamber. The technology could help police investigate homicides and trace gun trafficking. Thirty-three California police chiefs support a bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Paul Koretz, a West Hollywood Democrat, that would require the markers. "It has the potential to solve some significant crimes...

The anonymity of ammunition is being fought with the proposal of Assembly Bill 352, which, if passed, would require that every semiautomatic handgun sold after January 2009 be equipped with a new microstamping technology that would allow law enforcement officials to link the used bullet cases to the handguns from which they were fired. This new technology would stamp a serial number on to every bullet fired from a particular gun. That number would be linked to the owner of the gun in already existing database of gun owners. In a recent press release introducing the legislation, Assemblyman Paul Koretz...

..."This is nothing fancy, just simple technology," he said on a recent day, after proudly showing that the identification numbers on several slugs remained readable after the bullets were fired into a bulletproof vest. With 45% of the state's homicides unsolved in 2003, the most recent data available, the California Legislature is moving ahead with two potentially landmark measures that would require that identifying marks be embedded on projectiles from guns. One proposal would have all bullets sold in the state marked during manufacture with codes. The other would mandate that guns be equipped with stamping mechanisms that would hammer...

Local gun club members have banned on-duty state Justice Department officers from their popular Sacramento-area shooting range in a symbolic stand against Attorney General Bill Lockyer's pursuit of legislation they oppose. Lockyer's office fired back Wednesday by calling the impact minimal because most, if not all, of its Sacramento-based officers did not use the range on duty in the past year. The Folsom Shooting Club, which runs the Sacramento Valley Shooting Center in Sloughhouse, last week sent the Democratic attorney general a letter describing the ban and the group's opposition to two bills designed to trace bullets or cartridges back...

An anti-gun group in California says it is making progress on what it calls anti-crime bills. The California Million Mom March is holding "lobby day" in Sacramento on Monday -- an occasion to urge lawmakers and the governor to turn two recently passed bills into law. Those two bills include SB 357, which would require that all handgun ammunition bought and sold in California have serial numbers engraved on it. According to the California Million Mom March, "When someone buys a box of bullets, the bar code and the buyers' identification will be entered into a state Justice Department database....

SACRAMENTO – A novel proposal to etch identifying serial numbers on handgun ammunition sold in California narrowly passed the Senate yesterday, although supporters conceded the legislation remains a work in progress. The measure, Senate Bill 357, passed on a bare-majority, 21-14 vote that split along party lines, with Democrats in support. The vote sent the bill to the Assembly, which has long been the decisive battleground for gun-control initiatives. A related measure, to require manufacturers to equip some semiautomatic handguns with components that would place an identifying code on spent cartridges, passed the Assembly 41-38 and was sent to the...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Dueling proposals to identify handgun bullets to help police solve shootings were approved by state lawmakers Thursday, despite concerns the requirements are impractical or would harm law-abiding citizens. Ammunition manufacturers would be required to laser-cut each bullet with a serial number under the Senate bill, while the Assembly version requires guns to stamp identification numbers on bullet casings each time they are fired. "With a simple magnifying glass (police) can read that identifying number ... and determine who purchased that ammunition," said Sen. Joseph Dunn, D-Garden Grove, who is carrying the Senate version. "This is a tremendous...

SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers Thursday voted to require weapons manufacturers to ensure that all bullets and cartridges are branded with distinctive serial numbers. Contained in two measures that are intended to help law enforcement solve cases, the proposal would be unique among states if approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The gun industry said the proposals were impractical and would force weapons makers to either write off the huge California market or adopt practices that would greatly increase the cost of their wares. (snip) On the weapons measures, though a number of law enforcement officials backed...

Assembly Bill 352 was not heard today.  Instead, AB 352 is now expected to be heard on the Assembly floor this Thursday, May 12.  AB 352 expands the definition of "unsafe handguns" to include semi-automatic pistols that are not designed and equipped with an array of microscopic characters, which identify the make, model, and serial number of the pistol, etched into the interior surface or internal working parts, which are then transferred by imprinting on each cartridge case when the firearm is fired. Please continue to contact members of the Assembly before Thursday, May 12, asking them to oppose AB...