A New Trojan Horse: “Encoded Ammunition”
January 31st, 2008 by Syd
They are popping up like noxious weeds in unlikely places, most notably in the legislatures of states that are otherwise gun-friendly – “encoded ammunition” bills. “Encoded ammunition” is code for requiring manufacturers to put serial numbers or similar individualized identification on each round of ammunition produced. Given the coordinated way in which these bills are appearing, I sense that the forces of gun control feel that they have struck upon another way to harass manufacturers and gun owners with another piece of stupid legislation that would do nothing to reduce crime but would tend to drive up the price of ammunition by slowing the manufacturing process, thereby reducing supply, and burdening the manufacturers with the expense of costly machinery to apply the “code” to each projectile. Also, record-keeping technology for all of this individualized ammunition would require massive expenditures in IT to develop the databases and search systems to keep track of the new “codes.” Private manufacture of ammunition might well become illegal if reloaders do not have the equipment to “code” their reloads. Further, if manufacturers are unable to comply with the preposterous demands of these new bills, they could result in a de facto ammunition ban.
This spate of new bills feels like a coordinated effort because of its sudden appearance in several state legislatures at the same time:
Cogito Ergo Geek is on top of the story in Mississippi, Illinois, Tennessee, Hawaii and Indiana. Armed and Safe also has an analysis of the Illinois versions of the bill. The War on Guns covers the Tennessee version of this bill. A similar bill has been introduced in the Maryland legislature as HB0517. The Maryland bill also includes a $.05 per round tax. Ammunition encoding has been introduced in Massachusetts to be inserted into their “microstamping” bill. It kind of looks like a pattern to me.
The implications of this nonsense are staggering when you think about it. Every time you buy a box of ammo, your purchase will be recorded in a database somewhere. Ammo prices will go through the roof. You will have to forfeit all of your non-encoded ammunition or face prosecution. Reloading will become illegal.
The NRA provides a good run-down of the implications of the Maryland bill, including the following:
Reasons to Strenuously Oppose This Legislation
People would be required to forfeit all personally-owned non-encoded ammunition. After a certain date, it would be illegal to possess non-encoded ammunition. Gun owners possess hundreds of millions of rounds of ammunition for target shooting, hunting and personal protection. Consider that American manufacturers produce 8 billion rounds each year.
Reloading (re-using cartridge cases multiple times) would be abolished. There would be no way to correspond serial numbers on cartridge cases, and different sets and quantities of bullets.
People would be required to separately register every box of “encoded ammunition.” This information would be supplied to the police. Most states do not even require registration of guns. Each box of ammunition would have a unique serial number, thus a separate registration.
Private citizens would have to maintain records, if they sold ammunition to anyone, including family members or friends.
The cost of ammunition would soar, for police and private citizens alike. The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturing Institute estimates it would take three weeks to produce ammunition currently produced in a single day. For reason of cost, manufacturers would produce only ultra-expensive encoded ammunition, which police would have to buy, just like everyone else.
A tax of five cents a round would be imposed on private citizens, not only upon initial sale, but every time the ammunition changes hands thereafter.
Shotgun ammunition cannot be engraved. Shotgun pellets are too small to be individually engraved. Shotgun cartridge cases are made of plastic, which would be difficult to engrave.
Criminals could beat the system. A large percentage of criminals’ ammunition (and guns) is stolen. Criminals could also collect ammunition cases from shooting ranges, and reload them with molten lead bullets made without serial numbers.
Congress eliminated a similar requirement in the 1980s, because there was no law enforcement benefit. Federal law had required purchasers of handgun ammunition to sign a ledger, but Congress repealed that requirement in 1983 (.22 rimfire) and 1986 (center-fire handguns), because it burdened purchasers, vendors and police, with no law enforcement benefit.
This appears to me to be a concerted effort to legislate a back-door ammunition ban. Versions of these bills will undoubtedly be submitted to other state legislatures, and we need to be on the lookout for them.
These bills are typical of the gun-grabber strategy. They know they can’t win if they are honest about their agenda so they practice “theft by deception” with legislation that purports to be about crime control and “safety”. These kinds of laws do nothing to reduce crime or improve the safety of anyone except criminals, but they do make it much more difficult for law-abiding gun owners to exercise their civil rights. That is the real agenda.
I think if they keep pushing people with this insanity, they will achieve something they did not bargain for: another “hot” revolution.
My ammunition is “encoded” - my barrel does it each time I pull the trigger….duh!
These are straight out of the Coalition Against Gun Violence and the Women Against Gun Violence playbook (see http://www.wagv.org/state-legislation.php). They are selling their bias through speakers’ bureaus and seek out “friendly” legislators, and meet with them as a group.
They are funded by very rich people who can afford to provide free lunches at their propaganda and action planning events deemed “educational”.
They are indirectly funded by shadow rich people who provide research grant money to students who study under anti-second amendment extremists, and their sugar daddies also provide indirect funding for their marketing and media expenses through grants for “non-profits.”
They don’t care if they are indirectly creating a dictatorship with the accompanying police state. They are so driven by fear that they are completely irrational.
They will never get my reloading gear, they will never get my ammunition, and they will never be able to stop me from continueing to reload. There are a lot of gun owners oiut there who feel and acvt the same. The more some politician starts banning things, the more determined I am to have it. Durring the “assault weapons ban” I purposely searched ofr and bought high capacity magazines and three “assault weapons”. I know a bunch of gun owners who did the same thing.
An unjust/UnConstitutional Law will never be obeyed.
I will always be reloading, and I started reloading because years ago I thought, “The Constitution doesn’t say a word about ammunition, just guns….”
When you think about it, they started doing this ammo registration (which will lead to a ban) thing about the time they realised that the Supreme Court was going to rule on DC’s gun ban.
They are betting they will lose, hince restrict and elliminate ammunition.
Think about it…………
I would assume that individual bullets sold for handloading would be required to be encoding. You think handloading and ammo is getting pricey already! I’m sure they’d like nothing better than to eliminate this practice if at all possible.
This is also just another way to get registration introduced as well as to price ammo out the reach of many folks, kind of like the tobacco taxes being used to modify peoples behavior by pricing and taxes.
This needs to be fought as vigorously as any gun control issue to date. It is dangerous on many levels.
Which way do we go? Any road that leads out of Maryland. It would be wonderful if, just once, they would think these proposals through and consider the end results. If this one goes through, no more of the following in Maryland:
Cowboy Action Shooting
Ammunition sales (this is what they are after)
Hunting
Competitive Shooting of any kind
Our representatives need to be contacted and politely educated.
This proposed legislation is frightening. The gun grabbers know they cannot win a frontal assault on the 2nd Amendment, so they are attempting this backdoor route. The foundation of all rights is the right to property. It’s a pattern I’ve seen repeated in many areas of public life - erode the property rights of citizens until it doesn’t matter any longer what the Constitution says. No one can defend himself if no one can legally own ammo!
1. Bravo for Andrew - both cases and bullets are already “encoded” each time the trigger is pulled!
2. This is essentially a racist piece of legislation. It would deny poor, minority persons a means of self defense. If Jesse Jackson would open his eyes, he should be screaming and protesting against this legislation!
3. It would essentially stop all ammo, reloading compnent, and, by logical extension, firearm sales in MD. With the economy the number one concern, is that a wise thing to do?
4. The list goes on, but I’ll let others cover some points, too.
Save your “ammo”, we’re going to need it for the revolution.
Maryland HB 517 is sponsored largely by delegates from Baltimore City, where very little is under control. Crime is rampant, their schools are terrible and they have major issues within their police and fire departments. Hopefully, saner heads will prevail if this bill makes it through committee.
Here’s a little detail :
OK,
Little digging and poking and I think we have the culprits.
The core legislation document was written a person called Briahna Taylor for the law firm Gordon Thomas Honeywell.
As if by magic one of their clients is called Ammunition Coding System.
www.ammocoding.com
This appears to be a shell for a company called Ravensforge LLC
Ravensforge inventors or record are Mr Steve Mace of Seattle, Washington and Mr Russel H Ford also of Seattle
As if by magic they have a patent pending for this magical system
It is very interesting to see that as part of their About Us mission statement they boldly state that the implementation requires legislation.
Interestingly enough they also intend to charge a licencing fee for EVERY bullet sold as well…..
I would suggest that the folks in each of the legislations where this is being pushed pass this info onto the relevant political persons whith questions such as.
This legislation is only being pushed by a single vendor as a commericial enterprise. In effect using the legislation as their sales force (without paying them……8-)
This system is proprietory and with patent pending will lock out any other provider
The system has not had any validation, peer review etc
The system will act an inherent restraint on interstate trade
The information provided via the system will contain data that is generally regarded as PII (Personally Identifiable Information) and as such has legislative protection
Due to it’s nature the system may broach 5th amendment self incrimination protection.
its already happening. no more brass, bullets any “component” used to make a round of ammunition. was looking for some .38 brass but i cant buy it there anymore.
on ebay i mean…
[…] More ….. […]
OF COURSE there’s a buck to made by restricting everyone’s basic rights. But there’s a buck to be saved by restricting just a few people’s “rights” before it goes too far.
What’s the old saying? I’ll relinquish my weapon when they pry it out of my cold dead hand. There have been several email messages about what has happened in those countries where firearms ownership has been prohibited. In all cases, the crime rates have gone thru the roof - mostly in those types of crimes where weapons are used, i.e., armed robbery, murder, assault, etc. Australia has become the most vocal populace decrying their restrictive gun ownership laws. It could happen here !!! Be alert and stay abreast of any pending legislation…
I stopped by a new super walmart yesterday to purchase some 45 auto ammo. There was only two boxs of 50 rd and one of 100 rd left so I bought them. I then noticed the scant number of other caliber ammo and the complete lack of any firearms except for BB rifles. The manager told me that Walmart will be ending its selling of firearms and all firearm related components in the near future at all locations and that his new store is one of the test stores and would be among the first to begin this action. This is Charlotte, N.C.
To cripple a town, city, region, and or state…attack their ammo supply(means of resistance), fuel supply(energy), and water/suage(health). Here they come!
In UK it is SO bad, that it is ILLEGAL to carry a baseball bat in your car UNLESS you have the ball and glove. People carry MAG flashlights as weapons. There are 4 MILLION cameras watching UK citizens - the MOST in the world and NOW they want to use DRONE planes to fly over and watch people.
Crime has gone through the roof, as it has in Australia. They even thought of banning kitchen knives with POINTS!
Finally, the Brits are pissed off and getting together for rallies to fight off the Nanny State.
Never, never, never, never, give up your guns or ammo. Charleston Heston must be our rallying cry! I would LOVE to see the Feds go into a West Virginia hollow and try to disarm a good ole boy! They would have Ruby Ridge all over again!
Russ Ford of Seattle Washington has cooked up this whole thing as he is the patent holder for the ammunition encoding idea. He couldn’t get any ammo manufacturers to play along so he is trying to blind side the industry by getting his idea passed into law at the state level. This greedy person is just trying to make bank on a consumable i.e. ammunition by saying that this will help solve crimes. What a boatload of crap.
If this is passed into law in Washington, some criminal should go to Russ’ house, steal his ammo, shoot him in the head with it, and the police will link the ammo back to him and figure it was a suicide!
What a clown!