Written by Nick Luzi
The California General Assembly instigated a new bill forcing the use of microstamping on police officer firearms.
Microstamping is a process in which a gun imprints a unique microscopic code onto the ammunition it fires. The goal is to allow investigators to collect shell casings at a crime scene, enter the code in a database, and quickly track the firearm to its owner. This bill would be used to expand California’s existing law, titled the Unsafe Handguns Act, passed in 2007. That bill requires all new handgun models sold in the state to include the microstamping feature. The bill had the support of only 12% of all California county-sheriffs and police chiefs.
The National Sports Shooting Foundation estimates that microstamping would increase the cost of a handgun by about $200, taken out of the wallets of taxpayers. Although officers are given an equipment allowance in addition to their salary, they are required to buy their own weapons and ammunition.
Democrat Jesse Gabriel, the sponsor of the new bill, said his intent is to force the hand of gun makers. “For too long, gun manufacturers have prioritized ideology over safety and fought commonsense efforts to incorporate microstamping technology into new firearms,” he said in a news release. “Our legislation will allow California to use its market power to overcome this obstinance and dramatically expand the use of this important technology.”
Mark Oliva, spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, called microstamping an “unworkable technology.”
“It sounds great on paper but … it doesn’t hold up,” Oliva said.
Oliva said that it can take up to 10 bullet casings to piece together one digital identifier. He also said that the microstamp could be easily sanded off, similarly to how criminals erase gun serial numbers.
Additionally, the bill would require the state to remove three models of handguns from the approved roster for every new model that is added to the roster, beginning on July 1, 2022.
Gun owners’ rights are under siege across the country, and this bill is yet another attempt by the left to limit the rights of law-abiding gun owners in the State of California.
Photo via USA Carry
