Posted on 06/19/2012 6:18:35 AM PDT by marktwain
It sounds like something from a futuristic thriller: police pick up spent bullet shells, find a tiny code on them that reveals what gun they were shot from and then use the ID to track down the killer. The technology to do this, called microstamping, is actually available today, but what’s stopping it from being used — and many criminals from being caught — is politics.
There are battles raging across the U.S. over microstamping, with supporters of the new technology squaring off against the gun lobby, which is strongly opposed. It is hard to see why the critics are so upset — and why they put so little value on microstamping’s potential to help fight crime.
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Gun violence in the U.S. is an epidemic. American gun-ownership rates are the highest in the world, with a remarkable 88 guns per 100 people. America also ranks No. 1 out of the top 26 high- and middle-income countries in gun mortality. In an average year, almost 100,000 people in the U.S. are shot or killed with a gun.
When police investigate gun crimes, they are often stymied by a lack of evidence. Guns are involved in the vast majority of murders, and according to the FBI, nearly 40% of all killings go unsolved because of lack of evidence. In many shootings, bullet casings are the only tangible evidence police have.
This is where microstamping comes in. If it were required, every gun would need to have a microscopic code stamped on the tip of its firing pin. When a bullet leaves the gun, its shell casing would be stamped with the code, which could be retrieved from the casings found at crime scenes.
(Excerpt) Read more at ideas.time.com ...
...add a new or modified firing pin...
...collect brass from the individual the act is to be pinned on...
...fill/remove/alter the microstamp...
As others have stated here, the microstampers want universal registration leading to confiscation. Seems pretty much in line with emperor zippy’s apparent plans for America.
Vote hard!
Use a revolver, and you don't need to police your brass, unless you use more than a cylinder-full of cartridges. Even then, you could eject them into your pocket.
“Microstamping only makes sense if there is universal gun registration, no theft of firearms, and no easy countermeasures by criminals. “
Let me add an essential step- exchanging ALL non-microstamped guns for ones that have the technology. There are probably a hundred million guns in the USA right now that don’t have microstamping, and forcing all “new” purchases to have them will never reach 100%.
Whatever microstamping is actually about, it has nothing to do with fighting crime.
But that's the great thing. Since the microstamps can easily be filed off, the government will also need to have annual gun checks to make sure the microstamps are still in place. It just gets better and better.
“Even then, you could eject them into your pocket. “
Moon clip. ‘Course you’d need to shoot a .45, I don’t know of a .357 that uses a moon clip. Faster reloads, too.
Correction, you CAN get moon clip revolvers in 9mm, and .357
What the microstamping crowd doesn’t get is that it’s very dangerous. Let me put it in simple numbers.
They are suggesting that we use sharp edged imprinting technology to mark cases. Now, these sharp edged imprints will put a weak point on the case/primer when the gun is fired. Depending on the caliber, the pressure that will hit those weak points can be as low as 23,000 PSI and as high if not higher than 40,000 PSI.
Let’s look at this for a moment. Say the firing pin has a defect or is damaged. A primer is pierced due to the microstamping and now you have 40,000 PSI that pushes part or the whole of the firing pin out of the firing pin channel. What happens? It’s like another bullet going in the opposite direction. What is in line with the firing pin channel on a pistol? Yep, the shooters face.
Can we say lawsuit??? Yep.
Given that I along with other people have brought this point up with not only the designers and politicians... Anyone that dies as a result of microstamping induced failure of a cartridge case should be considered a murder victim and the designers and politicians held accountable.
NY tried it (”ballistic fingerprinting”, equivalent to microstamping like a thumbprint is equivalent to a name tag).
Put many millions of dollars into it.
Ran it for over a decade.
Didn’t solve a single crime.
IIRC, are dismantling it now.
I have read that the FBI estimates there are somewhere around 200 million guns in the hands of private citizens in the US.
That’s a lot of firing pins to replace - not counting the spares.
Sounds like another of Obama’s shovel-ready jobs.
“There are millions of guns in circulation without any such micro stamping, a new firing pin would leave no marks, someone could easily police their brass or use a revolver thus leaving nothing to examine....for these reasons it’s not workable to try unique micro stamping.”
There is an amazing technology called a “file” that would take care of microstamping in a heartbeat.
Microstamping is a transparent effort at universal registration, and to make guns less affordable.
If something like this were desirable, it’d be easier to pre-engrave the brass and register ammo sales. Of course, criminals would just deface the engraving, so it’d be useless as well - except for controlling those pesky law-abiding citizens a bit more.
***...every gun would need to have a microscopic code stamped on the tip of its firing pin.***
A few seconds with some emery cloth or valve lapping compound and vola! No microstamp!
Nope they just don't care. It isn't about solving crimes. It's all about and only about making firearms more difficult and expensive to obtain and adding more onerous regulations. The microstampers come in three flavors:
No campaign was ever won by solely defending. There has to be some way to put some real consequences on the people who come up with this stuff. The politicians are actually the most vulnerable because they can lose an election and hence face the prospect of actually having to work for a living.
They would probably pass a law outlawing shell catcher bags and revolvers.
When shell catcher bags are outlawed only outlaws will have shell catcher bags.
How does this work on revolvers? I mean unless the perp stops and empties his gun how will microstamping help when a perp uses a revolver?
S&W 625 JM bump
"Microstamp" criminals, not guns
We have hundreds of thousands of violent criminals pouring over our borders, and hundreds of thousands of violent criminals being released from our prisons. We have an entertainment industry that has helped create and glorify the violent culture of Rap and Hip Hop. We have the Democratic Party that has worked to create divisions and hate in our society. We have an indebted government that is going to crash, taking all of us with it, and screwballs think marking firing pins will do something to stop crime. When the food stamps and various welfare checks stop. When this house of cards comes tumbling down, we are going to get the full force of our folly, and marks on firing pins won’t mean diddly squat.
There is a negative consequence, it involves bloodshed though, and the general public is a bit squeamish about that. But once it gets started, there's no reason to have mercy on these people who seek domination over you.
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