April
6, 2005--California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has proposed
that legislation be introduced to require all ammunition sold
in the state to be marked with identifying numbers.
Following an internal study on the idea
by the California Department of Justice, the attorney general
concluded that his proposal could work to reduce crime.
Under the attorney general's idea, manufacturers
would have to microstamp a matching indentification number on
each bullet and case, and also stamp that same number on the box
holding the ammunition.
Buyers of ammunition would have to register
each purchase, with the indentification number of the ammunition
recorded by dealers, along with information about the buyers.
Police agencies would not be subject to
Lockyer's proposed legislation.
A Washington state company, Ravensforge,
developed the microstamping system, which utilizes lasers to engrave
the numbers onto the bullets and cases. The numbers would be nearly
invisible to the unaided eye.
Attorney General Lockyer has already briefed
California law enforcement officials about the idea, and will
introduce it at an anti-crime summit in Los Angeles.
Representatives of the gun industry have
criticized the idea, saying that the additional manufacturing
costs would raise the price of ammunition from pennies per round
to dollars per round.
Thus, manufacturers would face the choice
of having to tool up to produce ammunition specifically for California,
and at an exorbitantly high cost, or distribute the "California-legal"
ammunition in all states at significantly higher prices than they
now charge.
A third option for manufacturers, and
one which gun-rights advocates say is the most likely, is that
manufacturers would simply refuse to sell ammunition in California.
Massachusetts gun owners have already
experienced this phenomenon with handguns, as the state has made
it unclear which handguns are legal to sell in that state. The
result has been a refusal by many gun manufacturers to sell handguns
to Massachusetts dealers.
Last year, California abandoned its "ballistic
fingerprinting" system, which required a spent casing from
every handgun sold in the state to be submitted to the Department
of Justice. After having spent millions of dollars on the system,
the state concluded that it was a waste of money, especially given
that the system had not resulted in a single arrest.
Lockyer's system, though, would not put
the cost burden onto the state, but rather onto the purchasers
of ammunition.
This is not the first time that legislation
has been introduced in California which would raise the cost of
ammunition. In 2002, state Representative Don Perata introduced
a bill which would have put a tax of five cents per round on ammunition.
The bill did not pass.
Opponents of Lockyer's proposal have questioned
how it will address reloaded ammunition, and predict a booming
black market for reloaded ammunition amongst criminals should
the proposal become law.
It is unclear at this time how much support
the attorney general's proposal will enjoy in the state legislature.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has not yet commented on the idea.
However, if Lockyer is successful in having
an "ammunition serial number bill" introduced, it may
touch off one of the biggest gun-control battles in the country.
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