…since the People’s Republic of Kalifornia legislature is filled with a bunch of morons that think this is a good idea, here’s an expert in the field telling you like it is.
I hate this state.
Why Microstamping and Bullet Serialization Won’t Work
A firearm examiner dispels the myths of these common gun-ban schemes being pushed in states throughout the nation.
by C. Rodney James, Ph.D.
As an independent firearm examiner, the fact that I am paid by prosecution, defense or an individual makes no difference. I work for science. My job is to find out what happened. As one who works with law enforcement, I want the bad guys punished. I also want to see the innocent freed and the law-abiding citizen unmolested by government. As a taxpayer, I want my taxes spent wisely.
Working for a government subcontractor, I personally watched millions of dollars frittered away through bureaucratic ineptitude, always with the best of “stated” intentions. Living through this made a lasting impression. With the proposed schemes of microstamping and ammunition coding, I see a plan to destroy the American ammunition industry while invigorating crime from the organized level down to the street thug.
With microstamping and bullet serialization, we face the latest schemes to evolve from what has previously been referred to as “Ballistic Fingerprinting.” This idea was to create a databank of images of the rifling striae, or marks, on fired test bullets as well as breech face signatures impressions and firing-pin impressions on a fired cartridge case for all new semi-auto handguns—and possibly all new guns—sold in the United States. The idea would be to include these images for comparison with crime-scene ammunition evidence entered into the current computer system using the Integrated Ballistic Identification System IBIS, which is the actual hardware and software system used under the National Integrated Ballistic Identification Network NIBIN.
With IBIS/NIBIN as it now stands, the computers do a rough comparison of bullet and breech-face characteristics with those in the crime-evidence database and select images within the general “class characteristic” range, leaving the firearm examiner to look for a potential match of individual characteristics. If there is a probable match, the actual fired evidence is requested for a microscopic comparison to a suspected crime firearm.
