A Fingerprint for a Gun
by Christine Stuart | March 3, 2008 5:04 PM
Posted to General News
On average law enforcement officers recover “just shell cartridges” in about half of all shootings nationwide, Josh Horowitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, said Monday.
Horowitz, along with the co-chairmen of the state Judiciary Committee, and other gun control advocates gathered at the West Hartford Police Department firing range Monday to support a bill that would require microstamping of all new semiautomatic guns sold in Connecticut after Jan. 1, 2010. The proponents of the bill said a higher percentage of cases would be closed if police could identify the gun from the shell cartridges collected at a crime scene.
What is microstamping? Keep reading to find out.
Microstamping technology uses a laser to engrave the breech face and firing pin of a gun with its make, model, and serial number. Any cartridge expelled from the gun will be stamped with that information and police at a crime scene would almost immediately be able to link a shell cartridge to a gun.
Wouldn’t criminals start getting smart and picking up their shell cartridges before fleeing the scene? Horowitz said “criminals don’t pick up shells.”
Would it be an expensive technology for gun manufacturers to start implementing?
Horowitz said no. He estimated it will cost between 50 cents and $3 per gun because the technology’s inventor, Todd Lizotte, agreed to give away the patented technology royalty free.
Also Ron Pinciaro, executive director of Connecticut Against Gun Violence, said manufacturers will have already had to incorporate the technology into their process for the state of California, so it will be there when more states come on board.
Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, compared the technology to “a fingerprint for a gun.”
Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, said this is not just about who fired the gun, but about who put the gun in the shooter’s hand. Lawlor and McDonald pointed out that opposition to the bill will obviously come from the National Rifle Association, but at the end of the day police will win the argument. He said the technology gives police one more tool to catch the bad guys.
California already has passed legislation, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2010. Six other states are proposing similar laws.
Click the play arrow to see what Lawlor and McDonald had to say about the bill and how it piggybacks on legislation passed last year:
Comments (10)
Posted by: on whalley | March 4, 2008 7:56 AM
So lets ignore the obvious for now being all the firearms manufactured previous to this, the abundance of aftermarket firing pins and their ease of replacement and the simple fact that, yes, the etching can be removed or defaced from the pin.
My firearm with this etching has just been stolen. Months or years later the police come knocking on my door and say my firearms has been used in a crime. I say, "so? I reported it stolen 3 years ago."
Dead end.
Now unless criminals are going around and registering their firearms there is no way any amount of marking, etching, fingerprinting can indicate to law enforcement who committed the crime of where the criminal is. What it will do is create the potential to easily set the police on the wrong path and potentially frame virtually any legal firearm owner which brings me to...
...Now lets say I am concerned that an individual at the range or gun club may have taken some of my spent brass. According to all those behind this "law" this etching is gospel. Police show up at my door saying they have found spent shells matching my firearm at a crime scene. Now what? I suppose I could always just collect my shells at the range but then admitting that this "system" is rendered void by simple shell collection sort of damages the whole premise behind it.
Show me a case where some guy buys a gun from lord knows where off the back of a truck, uses in it a crime and because of "microstamping" is caught. Even create a fictional scenario for me where this happens. It is impossible. Which politicians cousin owns the company doing the microstamping is what I want to know.
Posted by: on whalley | March 4, 2008 8:11 AM
I need to add...
fingerprinting? What ever happened to "ballistic fingerprinting?" Has there finally been an admission by all of the ballistic fingerprinting proponents that it's pretty much useless in solving crime unless conditions are perfectly ideal (which they never are outside of a forensics lab or episode of CSI)? If there has been such an admission I wasn't notified.
So lets move on to something that's just as if not more useless. But this ones better because it will cost more!
Posted by: Ned | March 4, 2008 8:37 AM
Why are gun control people like some weird, fanatical cult? Revolvers don't eject shells, so what then? In addition, the only people who will be penalized by yet another misguided gun control effort are law abiding, legal gun owners. Do you think for one minute that any of the pols, in Hartford or elsewhere are going to give up their armed guards in case of some natural or man made disaster? riots? No. The average person is expected to just get mugged, robbed, beaten, murdered, raped, etc.; if one is lucky the police may or may not show up - after the fact. Unless people committing violent crimes are locked up for 30 years, they're going to be back on the street and in your town sometime in the not too distant future - they might even be elected mayor of Hartford - Eddie, Latin King, Perez...
Posted by: on whalley | March 4, 2008 9:30 AM
One of the backers of this admits it doesn't work! WTF???
From the Register today:
"Joshua Horwitz, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Coalition to Stop Gun Violence,"
"Horwitz said young, unsophisticated gang members don't have the skills to remove the microstamping and rarely have the presence of mind to pick up shells from bullets fired at a crime scene."
But these young, unsophisticated gang members have firearms that have been legally purchased and registered to them?
Seriously. WTF?
What's the real motivation behind this? People, even trapped in fantasy utopian ideologies, cannot be so stupid as to not even hear the words they themselves speak, can they?
Posted by: Lothar | March 4, 2008 1:12 PM
Why are gun control people like some weird, fanatical cult?
That's priceless.
Posted by: Sean | March 4, 2008 8:33 PM
Priceless: Yup, but it's also quite true.
Posted by: Ned | March 5, 2008 8:21 AM
As with all "gun control" legislation, this bill is all about making guns available only to the elites, that is, politicians, and the wealthy, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, criminals who will not be fazed by this legislation.
Posted by: on whalley | March 5, 2008 8:25 AM
Check this out:
They want to code all the bullets too.
By the sounds of this bill anybody who reloads will have to register each cartridge with DPS. Forget that you'll no longer be able to just buy a block of lead and shape your own bullets but you'll have to order the bullets from some manufacturer that marks each one. I bet that wont be expensive at all. Nope.
Posted by: on whalley | March 5, 2008 8:29 AM
Woops. I guess it doesnt like html tags.
It's Bill No. 603
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2008/TOB/S/2008SB-00603-R00-SB.htm
Posted by: Tim | March 20, 2008 1:44 PM
Criminals don't follow laws, that is why people kill people and people steal from people even though murder and stealing have been illegal since the beginning of time. All gun control or micro stamping laws do is make it harder and more expensive for law abiding citizens to own firearms and ammunition to protect themselves from violent criminals. Criminals get their guns illegally, it's not like they go to a gun store, fill out paperwork, have their identification checked, and purchase a gun with the guns serial number on the books. That is only what law-abiding citizens do. When guns are banned or extremely hard to get, only criminals and the government have guns. If you know anything about history, you should know tyrants and criminals love gun control because it stops everybody except their gangs of violence and power from owning firearms. Besides, Convicted felons can't legally own firearms anyway. My name is Tim; I am a U.S. Marine and honor college student.