"Microstamped" cartridge case*
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Recently (here and here), I have been a bit hard on some California police chiefs, over the support voiced by the L.A. and San Francisco chiefs for "body armor control." Today, I'll be reversing course a bit, over news that the California Police Chiefs Association has sent a letter to California Attorney General Edmund Brown, urging further study of the efficacy of "microstamping," before California's law mandating use of that technology is implemented.
In the letter, CPCA Acting President Susan E. Manheimer wrote, "There are too many unanswered questions with microstamping in its current iteration" and raised concerns that "statements about the capabilities of microstamping may have been technologically premature." In 2007, CPCA supported legislation (AB 1471) to require firearms microstamping in California.
What might have changed between 2007, when the CPCA supported such a law, and now? Indications that the technology won't accomplish anything.
The letter continues, "We support further research of microstamping in light of the new information that has surfaced since California passage of the legislation. Publicly available, peer-reviewed studies conducted by independent research organizations conclude that the technology does not function reliably and that criminals can remove the markings easily in mere seconds. We believe that these findings require examination prior to implementation." The CPCA also expressed concerns over implementing the technology during a very difficult budget environment and the negative impact on law enforcement budgets which are already under significant pressure.
Those are both very good reasons to question the wisdom of embarking on this program, but not, I would think, the best reason, which can be summed up in the four words "shall not be infringed."
For those unfamiliar with the term, "microstamping" is a technology whereby the tip of the firing pin of a semi-automatic firearm is laser-engraved with identifying characters, which are imprinted on the primer of the round when the gun is fired, thus (theoretically) allowing investigators to glean valuable information from the ejected cartridge cases. This is not to be confused with "ammunition accountability" legislation (which has not been passed as law anywhere--yet), in which ammunition manufacturers would be required to imprint each round of ammo (both bullet and cartridge case) with a serial number, unique to that box of ammo, with information about the buyer stored in a government database.
Unfortunately, the chiefs are a bit late in coming to this realization. The legislation was signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2007, and was supposed to go into effect several days ago (New Years Day). The only reason it has not is that the relevant technology is still encumbered by patents (the holder of the patents is expected to relax the restrictions in the near future). Studying the value of the technology after the mandate for it has been signed into law (and after, indeed, the law was scheduled to go into effect) is a bit like closing the barn door after the horse has already bolted.
Still, better late than never, I suppose, and this development should give real pause to other states that might be considering following California's path. Will it change minds at Mayors Against Illegal Guns? The Brady Campaign? The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV)? Probably not, but that just shows how in love those organizations are with their anti-gun dogma.
*ID Dynamics / Todd Lizotte Reference Images / Ballistic Microstamping
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Comments
That's a pretty darned good piece, Kurt!
Thanks, John. It really surprised me to see the CPCA make this move.
Considering any marginally competent home 'gunsmith' can swap a firing pin in minutes (or remove the microstamping with just a little file work), this is one of the dumber ideas I've seen to date.
Agreed, GSR. I may be the world's most mechanically incompetent bipedal mammal, and even I can change a firing pin pretty easily. Why it required "studies" to figure this out is a mystery.
. . . Or perhaps not--if one exercises a bit of skepticism about the motivation behind this law as being about "fighting crime," rather than imposing as many layers of bureaucracy, expense, and inconvenience on gun manufacture, commerce and ownership as possible.
A criminal could simply pick up some random spent casings from a gun range and leave those for the police to find, or use a revolver and leave nothing.
And of course this "amazing turnabout" by the CPCA has nothing whatever to do with the fact that many manufacturers of both ammunition and firearms are now telling the "only ones" in "Californicate" that not only will they not put up with the added cost of gun-control for the good citizens of the left coast state . . . they won't even provide their goods to the LEO's there . . . surprise! . . . the high price of gun control affects you statists too!!
Now that California police chiefs might have regained some of their common sense they should sponsor a bill to reverse this dumb legislation and use the money to do real police work. The bill was hairbrained at best and criminal at worst for defrauding the taxpayer. Did the idiots at the California State Capitol really think a crook/felon was going to go into a store to buy bullets traceable to him? He will steal them or buy them out of state. What happens to reloaded rounds. They get stamped for or five times and are useless. And people wonder why california is on the brink of bankruptcy despite having the highest taxes of any state overall?
Lived in California when it was a free state for a bit. Decades later, they got what they voted for and lots of people are voting with their feet to move places like here...Last American out, can you remember to shut off the lights?
I'm curious, do my new .303 Brit and .30-40 Krag pistol projects screw more California "handgun ammo" sales or are they "antiques"? In case it matters, both chamberings are now usable in handguns. Glad to be of help. Already did 30-06 and a lot of mag/big bore rifle chamberings. If you go by the letter of the law, I pretty well screwed a bunch of Californians, didn't I? Too bad they aren't actively enforcing the law against such chamberings as it might make California gun owners grow a pair. California was HISTORICALLY A GUN FRIENDLY STATE. It's where IPSC was invented, for Christ's sake! It's only become unfriendly in the past couple decades due to COMPLACENT PEOPLE.
I sent a letter to Mark DeSaulnier (state senator) outlining the problems with the microstamping bill - this letter contained about 20 or so reasons why this was a poorly-crafted piece of legislation. I addressed the technology, the legal aspects, the mind-set of criminals, the costs, the background of those supporting it, etc, etc, etc...
He sent back a canned response that essentially said "let's agree to disagree." He was NOT interested in the facts I raised - probably because he could not respond to them. We all know the CA legislature is not interested in the facts or doing something substantive... it's all about getting re-elected and making it APPEAR as if you're doing something.
Trust me on this, if the CPCA can arrange ammunition supplies at a discount which negates the added costs, they will once again support this law. This isn't about common sense, patriotism, or anything else, except exception from the law and/or its consequences for them.
Yet another "progressive" state reviewing a bad law only after it's been passed and signed into law. We just saw the same thing in NJ with our spiffy new "One Gun A Month" law, which currently prohibits dealers from purchasing more than one gun a month from manufacturers and distributors... The "Task Farce" that was created decided that this was a bad idea and they're currently rushing more do-nothing legislation through that will correct the dealers problem, but do nothing for the law abiding citizens who, according to our lame-duck governor, don't "need more than 13 handguns" each year anyway.
In a related story, Virginia (one of the other rights rationing states) is considering legislation to repeal their one gun a month law, following in South Carolina's footsteps because the law is proving to be ineffective.
Speaking of reloaded rounds, seriously, is CA that stupid? The first thing that occurred to me with microstamping is that all a criminal has to do now is pick up a few shells at a shooting range and reload them, then go commit a crime. The law comes knocking at your door because the shell had your microstamp on it, and of course not there's, because those of us with a brain know that the majority of criminals do not go to a store and buy there firearms. As some of you mentioned, this is just the CA governments way of adding more layers to deter GOOD people from buying more firearms. I'm really starting to hate this state as of late an ready to move if we can not turn over all the Liberal BS.
Ok, now I look stupid. Out of my anger from hearing of yet another gun control law in CA, I did not even look at the picture above that shows the microstamp goes on the primer! Doh! I guess that was the point of the article and changing firing pins. Sorry, I got worked up about the new bill in general and this was the first related article I found with comments!
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