Free Republic

U-T SACRAMENTO BUREAU OVERVIEW Background: In 2007, the Legislature passed a bill that requires new models of semiautomatic handguns to leave an identifying code on shell casings. The law is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. What's changing: Unresolved legal issues and concerns about the technology have raised questions about whether the law will go into effect as planned. The future: Efforts by other states and the federal government to adopt similar rules may lag if implementation of the California law becomes problematic. SACRAMENTO – Two years after California passed a novel law requiring the next generation of semiautomatic handguns...

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...