Microstamping and why it's bad

Microstamping. If the anti-rights establishment supports something that may sound like common sense, it's usually a bad thing. On the face of it, the concept of microstamping may sound like a good idea. Basically it works like this. You fire a pistol, the firing pin imprints a serial number on the primer and another device imprints a serial number on the side of the casing. Bullets recovered at a crime scene can be examined and, if all the world is in harmony, the serial number can be read and the criminal can be tracked down and prosecuted. Great, right? No, and here's why.



Let's assume for a moment that the stamping process is perfect and works every time. Police recover casings at a crime scene, read the numbers and initiate a trace. The trace indicates that the firearm in question belongs to John Q. Doe. John is questioned  by police and explains that he sold that firearm many years ago to a friend of his, Paul. Police question Paul, and he says he sold the firearm to someone he met at a shooting club, but can't remember the guys name.

Do you see the problem there? Microstamping will lead to firearm registration and possibly open the door for a new criminal enterprise.

What's that you say, new criminal enterprise? Yes. Personally, I don't use public gun ranges. When I have to qualify with a firearm, it's at a private range, and I have a private range at my house. Not everyone is so lucky.

Perhaps this microstamping becomes the norm and people are out at their favorite public range shooting their new, high tech microstamping machines, leaving all of this evidence laying on the ground. Unless you're a re-loader, you're not likely going to take your brass home with you. You leave it with the range, because they sell brass to offset the cost of operating the range. Perhaps they have a bucket for you to throw your brass. What's to stop someone from pilfering used brass and sell that to the criminal element? Nothing, then we'll have to pass another law that forbids or regulates selling or transfer of used brass. But of course, criminals don't care about the law.

Third problem. The average time to crime for firearms in the US is over ten years. That means that, on average, criminals are using 10 year old firearms. If a teeny tiny stamping law is passed today, the benefits wouldn't be realized for more than 10 years. By then, I'm sure someone would come up with the idea of a brass catcher. Oops, I let the cat out of the bag. Oh, well, it doesn't matter much since criminals still won't have to register their firearms. Damn the pesky 5th Amendment.