The Shape of Things to Come – Encoded Ammunition
November 28th, 2008 by Syd
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania gun owners dodged a bullet when lawmakers failed to enact legislation that would have levied a 5-cent tax on each shell and required encoding ammunition with serial numbers and registering those numbers in a statewide database.
Introduced in February, the bill remains in the state House Judiciary Committee and will die at the end of the session on Sunday. But it could be reintroduced in January, and gun advocates expect to fight it again next year.
It’s part of a growing effort nationally to target ammunition as one way to stem gun violence.
Similar legislation has been introduced in 18 other states and the District of Columbia, but none of those bills have become law, said Ted Novin, spokesman for the National Sports Shooting Foundation in Newtown, Conn.
"Gun-control advocates have realized that it would be nearly impossible to achieve an outright ban on firearms, whether at the state or federal level," said Novin. "Understanding this, they have recently turned to backdoor attempts at firearm prohibition — bullet serialization, which is a de facto ban on ammunition, is a perfect example of this legislative strategy."
The "encoded ammunition" bill in Pennsylvania, according to proponents, would help law enforcement apprehend shooting suspects. The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Rep. John Myers of Philadelphia, said encoding serial numbers into bullets and casings would be akin to creating "DNA for bullets." The serial numbers would be logged into a database maintained by the Pennsylvania State Police.
That would allow law enforcement to track bullets used in crimes much the way officers now use license plates to find and apprehend suspects, Myers said when he introduced the bill.
"If we begin coding bullets, we take a big step toward identifying those who misuse firearms and we do it without infringing on responsible gun owners," Myers said in a statement in April. "Ultimately, we make all Pennsylvanians safer."
He could not be reached this week for comment.
But sportsmen see it as punishing law-abiding gun owners by almost certainly driving up the cost of ammunition.
"Preposterous," Kim Stolfer of McDonald said about the legislation’s purported benefits.
The production costs would make ammunition unaffordable to most people, Novin contended…
Source: Pittsburg Live
If my memory serves me correctly, they have already tried this in Maryland and it has proved to be a total waste of money. It is simply ineffective. Regardless of the denial of rights it entails, it simply does not achieve the desired result.
The fact is that if this solution worked criminals would still find a way around it.
The criminals don’t walk in and plunk down their genuine information to buy a gun. They sure aren’t going to suddenly do this for ammo.
Criminals have ready access to guns, drugs and any other illegal thing they want because…
THEY ARE CRIMINALS!
Restrictions that only the law-abiding will follow are utterly without any merit at reducing the actions of criminals.
Revolvers don’t leave shells at the crime scene. Reloaded ammunition will have many different serial numbers. Stolen ammo will lead to an innocent victim. This will only increase the cost of shooting, crime will be unaffected
No, they’d have to prohibit reloading. All those who cast their own bullets could be untraceable criminals, don’cha know?
I’ll bet the NYT won’t be for freedom of the (reloading) press.
Count on it.
[…] The Shape of Things to Come – Encoded Ammunition- Yes, because criminals are going to use the encoded ammunition when they commit crimes. They’ll also leave a note at the crime scene with their home address and phone number in case the police would like to contact them. Legislation like this will do nothing to curb the actions of criminals, it will only restrict the rights of law abiding citizens. […]