The showdown between the firearms and ammunition industries and the State of California over microstampsing was delayed yesterday until May 14 by a Fresno Superior Court judge in charge of the case.
"There is no existing microstamping technology that meets the requirement of this ill-considered law. It is not technologically possible to microstamp two locations in the gun so that required information imprints onto the cartridge casing,” said Lawrence G. Keane, senior vice president and general counsel for the Newtown, Connecticut-based National Shooting Sports Foundation.
The NSSF is the trade group that represents the nation’s firearms and ammunition industries and the host of the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoors Trade Show, or SHOT Show, held annually in Las Vegas.
“It is not even possible to consistently and legibly imprint on the cartridge primer the required identifying information from the tip of the firing pin, the only conceivable location for such micro-laser engraving,” he said. Microstamping purports to laser-engrave information, such as a gun's make, model and serial number on two distinct parts of each handgun, including the firing pin so that, in theory, this information would be imprinted on the cartridge casing when the pistol is fired.
The process adds up to $200 to the cost of the firearm, which makes it a perfect vehicle for backdoor gun control, literally pricing an entire price-point class of consumers out of the right to keep and bear arms.
With courts consistently ruling in favor of gun rights, in light of the Second Amendment’s clear language, liberals are looking for ways to restrict gun rights through taxes, regulations and administrative burdens, which have the same net effect of straight-forward gun control.
Military and law enforcement buyers do not have the same budget pressures as regular citizens, but even they will feel the pinch if the cost of a handgun goes up so dramatically.
The NSSF filed suit to delay the implementation of a mandatory microstamping law that was passed in 2007, but not set for enforcement until May 2013. The law requires that all semiautomatic handguns sold in the state not already on the California approved handgun roster incorporate unproven and unreliable microstamping technology.
In reaction to the law, both Smith & Wesson and Sturm Ruger have separately announced that they would no longer be selling new or improved semiautomatic handgun models in California because of the impossibility of complying with the new law.
When the law first passed, there was wording stipulating that it would not become effective until the California Department of Justice certified that the microstamping technology is available to more than one manufacturer unencumbered by patent restrictions.
Attorney General Kamala D. Harris gave her certification May 17, 2013.
That certification triggered the legal action by NSSF, joined by Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute.
Keene said the suit challenges the effectiveness of microstamping as a technique for linking cartridges to a firing pin—a conclusion backed by Todd Lizotte, the inventor of the microstamping.
“The holder of the patent for this technology himself has written that there are problems with it and that further study is warranted before it is mandated,” he said. “A National Academy of Science review, forensic firearms examiners and a University of California at Davis study reached the same conclusion and the technical experts in the firearms industry agree.”
If manufacturers cannot comply, then the law cannot take effect, he said.
The state of New York has experimented with microstamping schemes for more than 10 years and in that time not a single crime has been solved using the method.
Outside of the Empire State, there are few crime labs equipped or set up to work with microstamping, since the technology has proved virtually worthless for law enforcement investigations.
Seems like the only reason to push microstamping is to disrupt constitutionally protected gun rights. In the courtroom, all motive proves is motive, but without any fiber of usefulness otherwise, it is all we are left with.
Neil W. McCabe is the editor of Human Event’s “Guns & Patriots” e-letter and was a senior reporter at the Human Events newspaper. McCabe deployed with the Army Reserve to Iraq for 15 months as a combat historian. For many years, he was a reporter and photographer for “The Pilot,” Boston’s Catholic paper. He was also the editor of two free community papers, “The Somerville (Mass.) News and “The Alewife (North Cambridge, Mass.).”
