California Governor Schwarzenegger has signed off on bill AB 1471, which requires all new handguns manufactured for sale in his state to be “microstamped.” This involves an expensive, untested and unverified technology (corporate boilerplate doesn’t count as verification) designed to imprint the serial number of the weapon on the spent casings it fires.
Of course, it’s a proprietary technology, so we mere citizens don’t get to know the details, but it apparently uses engraving on the breech face and firing-pin to “stamp” the fired casing, thereby making it easier to trace guns used in crimes. The bill also requires all ammunition to be serialized.
Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? Now stop and think how much this will cost the manufacturers of firearms and ammunition.
S.T.I. has already decided it’s not worth it, and they’ve ceased sales to the California market, both civilian and law enforcement. They cite the heavy costs of complying with the 1998 drop test regulations, as well as the design changes that were forced upon them by the threaded barrel requirements.
In short, they’ve been jumping through hoops for years, and they’re not willing to do it anymore. Barrett took a similar stance awhile back.
Despite having one of the largest firearms markets in the country, the State of California has some of the most onerous gun control laws in the country. As with New York, Illinois and Washington DC, said laws have done nothing to keep their citizens safe, and have only emboldened the criminal element to levels of violence not seen in more permissive states.
Basically, the principle at work is that the breech face and firing pin will be engraved with the weapon’s serial number. Great, except for the fact that polishing the breech face is part of the regimen of cleaning a gun. Sooner or later, law-abiding gun owners will have obliterated that engraving, thereby becoming criminals by virtue of having “interfered” with the microstamping.
What’s more, firing-pins wear and break, so what happens when it has to be replaced? Is the owner expected to go to the Authorities and have the whole weapon re-serialized when they do so? What’s the cost and bureaucratic hassle involved with that?
Criminals will do so intentionally, anyhow–just as they routinely file the serial numbers off weapons.
Then there’s the question of reloading. What most people don’t know is that the firearms industry is a major recycler of lead and copper, since spent casings can be reloaded and reused at a lower cost than buying new ammunition. Scrap lead can be forged into new bullets, rather than ending up in a landfill. Microstamping renders this practice difficult, if not impossible, since the person reloading would be using components that are already stamped with the original weapon’s serial number.
Imagine this: I fire off a few rounds at the range. The serial number of my weapon gets stamped on the spent cartridges. Those cartridges are then reloaded by a company and sold to someone who ends up using them in a crime. Guess whose door gets smashed down at 3:00 by a SWAT team? Yep, mine.
Make no mistake; this isn’t about catching criminals. It’s about punishing legal gun owners. Make something so difficult and dangerous to do, and people won’t bother. The State of California can say, “we don’t ban guns” with a straight face, but the effect is identical.
Think it’s just civilian gun owners that will be affected? Guess again. This will drive the cost of firearms and ammunition up for everybody, including law-enforcement and the military. Who foots the bill for them? We all do.
So, California gets to confiscate even more guns (guns without the new technology will be banned, trust me), the cost to law-enforcement gets turned into a tax hike for everybody, and NanoMark gets a lucrative government contract. Works out nicely, doesn’t it? So, who’s behind this?
Assemblyman Paul Koretz of West Hollwood (who also tried to impeach President Bush) sponsored and pushed the bill. The Coalition to Stop Handgun Violence (formerly the National Coalition to Ban Handguns) also had their hand in the cookie jar. Money, as usual, was provided by the Joyce Foundation, an organization that has pumped over $10 million into gun control initiatives. Where they get their money is anyone’s guess, especially considering that they claim to be a local organization.
I’d like to see someone in our government investigate things like that. I’d be very interested in knowing who funds these things.