Yeah, this is going to work.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and top police brass have endorsed a bill that would make California the first state to require gun manufacturers to install a mechanism that would help investigators track down criminals. The bill would require all new semiautomatic handguns sold in California starting in 2010 to be equipped with "microstamping" technology. Such guns would microscopically etch their serial number, make and model on fired casings and allow police to link those recovered from a crime scene to the gun's owner.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and top police brass have endorsed a bill that would make California the first state to require gun manufacturers to install a mechanism that would help investigators track down criminals.
The bill would require all new semiautomatic handguns sold in California starting in 2010 to be equipped with "microstamping" technology.
Such guns would microscopically etch their serial number, make and model on fired casings and allow police to link those recovered from a crime scene to the gun's owner.
Microstamping is a physical etching on the firing pin or some other extruding nib that hammers in a serial number into the primer. Which is great until you consider that tests have repeatedly shown that the number doesn't effectively transfer enough too make it worthwhile or that a simple file can shave off the imprint stamp. Or, for a few buck you can get a new firing pin and simply replace it. Or, just take the gun to a "gun buyback" program and have the cops melt down the evidence for you, no questions asked. Or you could just use any one of the millions of guns without it. Or... well, you get the idea.
This will have zero effect on crime as it would take decades to get these guns into enough circulation to be useful, so don't be fooled. What this is is an insidious plan to make the cost of producing a firearm (and therefor purchasing of) prohibitive. As soon as this is in place, I'd bet California would make owning of a non-microstamp firearm illegal.
Also, in order to be effective, these serial numbers would need to be permanently recorded as to who own what firearm. Smells just like a registration scheme to me.
Here's a better idea - Why not track the fucking criminals instead of the tools they use?
Update
Looks like Jeff Soyer is on the same page as me:
What’s important to remember is this: If all guns have to stamp a unique code on bullets, that means there has to be a central database of those gun codes — and the gun owners. Sounds like nationwide registration to me.