August 2006

Update: Law Enforcement Against Microstamping

Once again, politicians and ill-informed citizens groups attempt to make legitimate gun ownership difficult to impossible.

From Cybercast News Service:

The California Senate on Thursday passed a bill that would require the “microstamping” of semi-automatic handguns — giving cartridges fired from those guns a unique imprint, which according to gun control advocates, would help police solve crimes.

Supporters say microstamping would turn spent cartridges into potential evidence in civil and criminal cases. According the California Million Mom March, “when the police retrieve the bullet casing at a crime scene, they can quickly track down the legal owner of the handgun that fired it.”

Nonsense, say Second Amendment supporters, who view the bill as yet another attempt to burden gun manufacturers and further restrict gun sales in the state. They say that gun makers, faced with the added expense of microstamping semiautomatic weapons, would either stop selling their wares in California or drastically raise prices.

[ . . . ]

The bill’s lead sponsor, Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood) acting in tandem with the Coalition to Stop Handgun Violence, has been fighting to pass the bill since last year.

Koretz, from the People’s Republic of West Hollywood, is one of these far-to-the-left politicians who want to disarm all legitimate gun owners in the state. The Coalition to Stop Handgun Violence is an ad hoc front for a socialist group for unilateral disarmament.

But the California NRA Members’ Councils says the microstamping would create false evidence trails.

“Micro-stamped cartridge cases fired and abandoned at government agencies facilities or private shooting ranges could be gathered and used to ‘seed’ crime scenes with the with ‘evidence,’ implicating law enforcement officers and citizens” in crimes they had nothing to do with, the group said in an analysis on its website.

The gun-rights group also said microstamped cartridges could not be recycled because they might implicate secondary users of reloaded cartridges. “Millions of pounds of metals will be turned into scrap and require expense disposal requirements imposed so it will not enter landfills.”

And without the ability to sell and recycle used (microstamped) cartridge cases, the cost of firearms training will increase for government agencies, the gun rights group added.

Second Amendment supporters also note that microstamps can be easily defeated by replacing parts of the handgun that have been stamped; polishing the microstamp with abrasives or modifying the stamp; and in some cases, the stamped markings may be filled in with residue produced by normal firing of the gun.

Criminals who steal guns, smuggle them into the state, sell them on the black market to violent gangs and possible terrorists, will bypass any and all provisions of this measure.
That leaves gun manufacturers, dealers and owners holding the bag on the extra expenses this insane law would require.

Californians, urge your representative to the state legislature to oppose the bill (AB 352). And contact Governor Schwarzenegger, asking him to veto the bill should it ever be passed by both state houses. Since the vote in the state senate was 22-18, that falls well short of the 27 votes needed to override a veto.

Read the whole story.