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Viewpoints: New microstamping law comes at the expense of improving consumer safety
Sacramento Bee ^ | Mar. 2, 2014 | Lawrence Keane

Posted on 03/12/2014 2:22:27 PM PDT by neverdem

A new California law is preventing consumers from being able to buy the best, ever more reliable models of pistols available, unless the manufacturer microstamps the make, model and serial number in two locations on the gun. In theory, the information would be imprinted on a cartridge casing when the gun is fired. New and improved models not equipped to microstamp are now considered “unsafe” under California law.

But, as several independent, peer-reviewed studies have shown, this nascent technology is flawed. It is incapable of reliably, consistently and legibly imprinting the required identifying information in two locations on an expended cartridge casing. Even the patent holder in a 2012 study he co-authored acknowledged the problems with this technology and called for further study rather than mandating its use. A National Academy of Science review, forensic firearms examiners and a UC Davis study reached similar conclusions. Because of the technology’s inherent limitations, no manufacturer can comply with this new law.

What the Legislature actually did was ban the innovation and stop the continuous improvement of today’s manufacturing processes that would otherwise enhance firearms safety and other functionality.

Compounding the problem is the state attorney general’s overreaching definition of what constitutes a “new model,” thus triggering the microstamping requirement. According to the attorney general, the slightest modification or design enhancement done as part of the normal manufacturing process for any product, such as changing the way a part is made or its dimensions to make it stronger and more durable, is a “new model,” which would now require microstamping. As a result, pistol models deemed as “not unsafe” by California are rapidly falling off the approved-for-sale roster.

While it’s true that firearms owners can be just as responsible with pistol models currently in the market, innovation and continuous improvement have always been...

(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: banglist; microstamping
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1 posted on 03/12/2014 2:22:27 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

Buy one and immediately replace those parts with new service parts that are not microstamped.


2 posted on 03/12/2014 2:29:39 PM PDT by Ouderkirk (To the left, everything must evidence that this or that strand of leftist theory is true)
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To: neverdem
[Art.] What the Legislature actually did was ban the innovation and stop the continuous improvement of today’s manufacturing processes that would otherwise enhance firearms safety and other functionality.

What they did was an exercise in cynicism, putting manufacturers in a double or even triple bind, in order to suppress their manufactures.

This is a gun ban.

3 posted on 03/12/2014 2:30:18 PM PDT by lentulusgracchus
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To: neverdem; MeganC

I am honestly starting to think gun stores in Nevada are behind this.

They will make an absolute mint!


4 posted on 03/12/2014 2:34:18 PM PDT by KC_Lion (Build the America you want to live in at your address, and keep looking up.- Sarah Palin)
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To: neverdem

Of course not - because, just like Obamacare is not about healthcare, the microstamping law in CALi is not about safety. It is about power and control. With the Supreme Court slapping down anti-gun laws as far as the right to carry... they are ever more resolute to try to find other avenues of “gun control”...

I’ve got an idea... how about every 2nd Amendment-supporting firearms manufacturer just quit selling to California... Starting with LAW ENFORCEMENT!


5 posted on 03/12/2014 2:51:17 PM PDT by TheBattman (Isn't the lesser evil... still evil?)
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To: lentulusgracchus
This is a gun ban.

Exactly as the Tyrants of Sacramento planned. Yet another Intolerable Act.

6 posted on 03/12/2014 2:56:24 PM PDT by TheDon (Californians are losing their right to keep and bear firearms one firearm at a time.)
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To: neverdem

more liberal utopian idiocy forced on to the fools living in CA by the liberal ruling elite to incrementally disarm arm the public. The state house in Sacramento is NAZI central west.


7 posted on 03/12/2014 2:57:41 PM PDT by drypowder
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To: KC_Lion
I doubt that. You may be able to purchase the firearm in Nevada but it would need to be transferred/shipped to a FFL in CA to actually taken possession of the gun so long as it is CA approved. If the firearm is not on the “roster” (the officially approved list of fire arms able to be sold in CA)then you are SOL.

Manufacturers such as Ruger are letting their products expire and drop off the list and not be renewed. Berreta and Glock look like they will follow in kind. This micro stamping debacle is less about safety or crime prevention than it is about a back door scheme to dry up the supply of firearms in CA and make what does end up as approved be too expensive for an average citizen to afford.

Think of the micro stamping law as a modern legal throwback to The Army/Navy laws of the late 1860’s and instead of disarming slaves,freedmen and Negroes it works against the common man and for his owners/rulers aka the political class and assorted exempted groups .

http://www.old-yankee.com/rkba/racial_laws.html

8 posted on 03/12/2014 3:09:20 PM PDT by Polynikes (What would Walt Kowalski do. In the meantime "GET OFF MY LAWN")
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To: Polynikes

next the state legislators will start complaining about neighboring states with “private party sales” leaking guns into Kali ala the New York state whining about Virginia et al.

they are never satisfied until only the gangs and cops (the same thing really) have guns.


9 posted on 03/12/2014 3:13:50 PM PDT by telstar12.5 (...always bring gunships to a gun fight...)
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To: telstar12.5

Either California gun makers (if any) will move out of state or, there will be a “parts exchange” business started there. Illegals will certainly run to have their guns upgraded to meet the new laws.


10 posted on 03/12/2014 3:23:36 PM PDT by DaveA37
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To: KC_Lion

“I am honestly starting to think gun stores in Nevada are behind this.

They will make an absolute mint!”

As a CA resident, you cannot buy a new non-CA compliant handgun in Nevada. Nevada gun stores can sell directly to residents of any bordering state with the exception of CA. All NV sales have to be transacted through a CA FFL. What I am wondering though, is about “used” guns.


11 posted on 03/12/2014 4:00:06 PM PDT by vette6387
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To: KC_Lion

Now the police will be able to tell which one of THEM shot the bad guy!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqomZQMZQCQ


12 posted on 03/12/2014 6:18:02 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: TheBattman
I’ve got an idea... how about every 2nd Amendment-supporting firearms manufacturer just quit selling to California... Starting with LAW ENFORCEMENT!

They'll just get them from the FEds: FFII

13 posted on 03/12/2014 6:21:51 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: telstar12.5
next the state legislators will start complaining about neighboring states with “private party sales” leaking guns into Kali ala the New York state whining about Virginia et al.

This happens to us Hoosiers all the time!

14 posted on 03/12/2014 6:23:07 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie
Heh. What makes you think the police are required to have these features in their guns? I'm sure they're exempt.
15 posted on 03/12/2014 6:33:33 PM PDT by Cyber Liberty (H.L. Mencken: "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.")
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To: Cyber Liberty

How can a Free Country have laws that SOME folks are exempt from?

Oh...

Wait...


16 posted on 03/12/2014 10:14:03 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

I think cops have a special nickname they use for their station in the community.

“Overlord.”


17 posted on 03/12/2014 10:15:26 PM PDT by Cyber Liberty (H.L. Mencken: "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.")
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To: neverdem

The idiots in California have put so many regulations on gun sales it is ridiculous. I recently purchased an Uberti reproduction of a Colt single action revolver in .44-40 WCF. It took over an hour to fill out the required paperwork for the registration, etc. After the ten day waiting period expired, I returned to pick up my gun and learned I now had to fill out MORE paperwork, including a paper listing information attesting to the make and model of my gun safe (!), and sign SEVEN more times under penalty of perjury, taking forty-five more minutes, before I could pick up my property!

Even then, under California law, I had to demonstrate that I knew how to safely handle the gun by loading it with dummy rounds, before the shop could legally deliver the gun to me! I have had fifty years of gun handling experience, used to teach hunter safety course, and teach gun handling, and managed The Old Sacramento Armoury gun shop. . . so this was a piece of cake. They were quite impressed that even through they had showed me the gun was empty, I checked it myself after the salesman handed it to me. Imagine my shock when they told me that I FAILED their test! Why???

I failed because I had touched the trigger.

But I had touched the trigger because on any Colt type single action after you have loaded it with only five rounds—leaving an empty chamber in the cylinder—you are supposed to lower the hammer from the half-cock position to place the hammer on the empty chamber and the ONLY way to properly handle a single action of this type requires releasing the hammer by using the trigger. It is considered VERY UNSAFE to keep, carry, or holster a loaded Colt single-action on the half-cock position because it can fire if dropped and hits the hammer and breaks the sear! In fact, It’s why the later Ruger, Colt, and some other SA revolvers were redesigned with transfer bars or trigger/hammer safety blocks. I had checked and this gun did not have these safety features. I pointed out this is the ONLY perfectly safe way to carry a Colt style single-action without a transfer-bar hammer or safety block, which this Uberti model indeed did not have!!!

But California requires a FAIL if the customer so much as touches the trigger on a loaded firearm during the handling demonstration. . . regardless if that is the proper technique or not. . . but THIS gun requires the release of the hammer that can only be accomplished by holding the hammer with the thumb while releasing the trigger to lower the hammer to a safe position, or all the way down on an empty chamber to MAKE THE GUN SAFE!

I can understand the reasons for not touching the trigger on a modern semi-automatic, but in this case it’s just plain STUPID!!! Of course the gun sales people knew this and we all got a laugh out of it. . . But that IS the regulatory requirement. Touch the trigger, void the sale, they tell me. Sheer idiocy. I suspect they just warn new buyers.


18 posted on 03/13/2014 12:03:44 AM PDT by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users continue...)
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To: Swordmaker

Where’s all the fun for rednecks any more?


19 posted on 03/13/2014 12:06:42 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: Swordmaker

I live in CA and I will not be purchasing any more Firearms here. I made a point to get everything I needed before they went crazier with the Gun Laws.

I am well aware that you can’t own too many Guns, but recent changes in the Law require ALL Guns to be Registered, even Long Guns.

My Brother who lives out of State is taking care of a few other pieces for me. I’ll pick them up when I establish Residence out of State. Too many obligations right now so we can’t leave for greener pastures.

Yeah, this is the new and approved America.


20 posted on 03/13/2014 12:21:27 AM PDT by Kickass Conservative (Nobody owes you a living, so shut up and get back to work...)
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