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From Gunweek Magazine
http://www.gunweek.com/
Ammo registration proposed in 10 states
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Controversial ammunition coding legislation introduced in at least 10 states that gun rights activists believe will lead to creation of de facto state handgun registries can be traced to a consulting firm in Washington state that lists as one of its clients a Seattle company with a patent pending on the coding technology.
Four anti-gun Democrat lawmakers in the Evergreen State are backing legislation that would require all pistol ammunition sold there to be coded beginning on Jan. 1, 2010.
Virtually identical legislation has been introduced by five anti-gun Democrats in the Arizona legislature, and the Washington state-based consulting firm Gordon Thomas Honeywell is offering “model language” for this legislation. The technology is being promoted as “a modern crime fighting tool.” A note at the bottom of the draft legislation states, “Gordon Thomas Honeywell Governmental Affairs can also provide drafting guidance.”
Gun Week contacted Briahna Taylor, a governmental affairs consultant with Gordon Thomas Honeywell, but she referred us to Steve Mace, president of Ammunition Coding System (ACS), the Seattle-based firm that now has a patent pending on this bullet coding technology. Ultimately, we were contacted by Russ Ford, ACS vice president for research and development.
The Gordon Thomas Honeywell Governmental Affairs website lists ACS as one of its clients.
The same model bill language used in Washington and Arizona has also been used as the basis for legislation introduced in New York, Illinois, California, Hawaii, Tennessee, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Mississippi. Pushing this legislation nationwide is a group calling itself Ammunition Accountability, not to be confused with ACS.
Ford said he and his partners developed the original language for the sample statute, working “closely with some legislators and a lobbyist, a retired deputy sheriff in California.”
“The basic premise of the bill came out of California,” he said, adding that Gordon Thomas Honeywell had polished the language.
Taylor noted that ammunition coding is not the same thing as “gun microstamping,” which requires etching of a unique code on the firing pin and inside the chamber of a semi-automatic pistol. “Microstamping” legislation has been enacted in California and will be a requirement for new handguns beginning in January 2010.
Anti-gun Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA) recently introduced “The National Crime Gun Identification Act,” which would mandate gun microstamping in all 50 states.
Coding and microstamping, Taylor said in a brief e-mail, “are very different technologies.”
ACS acknowledges on its website that “The implementation of the ACS technology will require legislation to establish an ammunition sale database. In those states that have already developed and implemented bar-coding systems that include driver’s licenses and other forms of identification, the integration of a database system to record ammunition sales will be relatively simple and inexpensive to implement.”
Ford told Gun Week that his motivation for pushing this technology is to separate responsible firearms owners from people who are misusing guns.
He also acknowledged that “our ultimate goal is to license the technology” to ammunition companies. Both he and Mace have other jobs, and the ammunition coding venture actually involves four friends, including him and Mace, who attended high school together. All are gunowners, Ford said.
He claimed that tests conducted a couple of years ago showed that laser etching can be done very fast, so that it would not slow down ammunition assembly lines.
In a “Q&A” link on the ACS website, the company insists that ammunition coding does not violate the Second Amendment, nor does it amount to a “backdoor gun registration scheme.”
The ACS website explains that, “State and federal legislative proposals to implement ACS would be based upon the existing firearm dealer licensing and gun tracing statutes enacted by Congress in 1968. The United States Supreme Court has, on numerous occasions, affirmed the constitutionality of the licensing and tracing provisions of the current federal law.
“Moreover, even the National Rifle Association supports the privacy protections contained in federal gun tracing regulations,” ACS stated.
However, that does not mean the NRA supports cartridge etching. The NRA and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, both oppose cartridge coding legislation.
“Legislation could be carefully drafted to insure that any information acquired under an ACS program could not be used to single out gunowners or function as a gun registration scheme. When a bullet or cartridge case is recovered at a crime scene, only duly authorized law enforcement agencies would have access to ACS bullet coding information. The ACS ‘trace’ would be completed using the same proven methods used by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies today in conducting crime gun traces. Only minimal personal identifying information is necessary to make ACS technology work (less personal information than is disclosed under normal circumstances by a person making a purchase by credit card or check).”
Activists Disagree
Many gun rights activists don’t see it that way, however. Heated discussions about the legislation have erupted on both TheHighRoad.org and KeepAndBearArms.com Internet gun rights forums.
Some directed their wrath at Democrats, whose party has traditionally pushed gun control schemes while New Jersey gun rights activist Michael Everall suggested that all of these bills are being promoted “by a single vendor as a commercial enterprise; in effect using (state legislators) as their sales force (without paying them).”
Ford acknowledged that “We are decidedly in favor of recouping our investment in this. We are a for-profit enterprise…and we would like to turn a profit someday.”
He said that Taylor, the consultant, had screened some nasty reactions from angry gunowners who have left threatening and/or obscene messages for ACS.
Ford insisted that the registration of ammunition purchases into a data base would not threaten anyone’s gun rights. He scoffed at the notion that anti-gun politicians might one day introduce legislation holding gunowners responsible if ammunition they purchased that was later stolen, might subsequently be used in a crime. Similar laws have been pushed to hold gunowners responsible if their firearms were stolen and misused.
He said criminals steal cars, often out of rental lots, to later be used in crimes, and nobody holds the rental companies responsible for that.
“What ammunition coding technology does and only does is provide a possible lead for law enforcement to follow,” Ford stated.
Besides, he asserted, “Gun registration already exists in this country, you know it, I know it.”
Sponsoring HB-3359 in Washington state are Reps. Al O’Brien, Jamie Pedersen, Dennis Flannigan and Brendan Williams.
Under provisions of their bill, the State Department of Licensing would establish and maintain a central ammunition database containing a registry of all pistol ammunition retailers who sell, offer for sale, loan, distribute or otherwise transfer pistol ammunition within the Evergreen State. Pistol ammunition retailers would be required to register with the Department of Licensing, and they would be required to report all pistol ammunition sales to that agency.
Coded Ammunition
Every round of handgun ammunition sold in the state would have to be coded with an alphanumeric code etched to the inside of the cartridge case and the base of the bullet. The same number would be printed on the cartridge box, and every buyer of pistol ammunition would have to provide a driver’s license or other identification, which would be recorded by the seller. The buyer’s date of birth would also be recorded, along with the date of the transaction.
Sellers who do not comply with the procedures or who sell non-coded ammunition would be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Meanwhile, in the Grand Canyon State, anti-gun Democrat Reps. Maria Garcia (13th Dist.) and Cloves C. Campbell (16th Dist.) both of Phoenix have been joined by Tucson Reps. Linda Lopez (29th Dist.) and David Bradley (28th Dist.), and Manuel Alvarez (25th Dist.) of Elfrida in sponsoring HB-2833, with nearly identical requirements to the Washington measure.
If passed, the law would take effect Jan. 1, 2009.
It would require that a unique serial number be etched or stamped on the bullet and inside each cartridge case of all calibers of handgun ammunition and cartridges for so-called assault weapons. Under this bill, the Arizona Department of Public Safety would maintain the ammunition records, and gunowners in the state would have until Jan. 1, 2011 to dispose of all current ammunition without the stamps.
In order for the Arizona measure to pass, it must be affirmed by at least two-thirds of the members of the legislature. In Washington state, it only takes a majority vote in the Democrat-controlled legislature.
Funding to pay for the creation of state databases would come from a half-cent “user fee” on each cartridge, which gun activists swiftly identified as an ammunition use tax.
“I understand people’s frustrations with legislation,” Ford admitted.
But he added that, “We, as firearms owners, everyday open up the newspaper, listen to radio, watch television and get news flashes about overwhelming misuse of firearms by people who are not going to attend legislative hearings and not vote on the issues and not be part of the process….As responsible gun owners we need to stand up and say ‘it isn’t us.’ ”
Continuing to stress that law-abiding gunowners have nothing to fear from coded ammunition mandates, Ford offered a challenge to his critics: “Where in America would you fire a shot and not claim responsibility for it?”
“Coded ammunition puts me in the pond of people that will never be considered a suspect,” he said. “That’s all this really does.”
Through the interview, Ford continued to acknowledge that profit is also a motivating factor.
“Certainly, we’re a non-profit organization and we’d really like to have that changed,” he said.
http://www.gunweek.com/
Ammo registration proposed in 10 states
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Controversial ammunition coding legislation introduced in at least 10 states that gun rights activists believe will lead to creation of de facto state handgun registries can be traced to a consulting firm in Washington state that lists as one of its clients a Seattle company with a patent pending on the coding technology.
Four anti-gun Democrat lawmakers in the Evergreen State are backing legislation that would require all pistol ammunition sold there to be coded beginning on Jan. 1, 2010.
Virtually identical legislation has been introduced by five anti-gun Democrats in the Arizona legislature, and the Washington state-based consulting firm Gordon Thomas Honeywell is offering “model language” for this legislation. The technology is being promoted as “a modern crime fighting tool.” A note at the bottom of the draft legislation states, “Gordon Thomas Honeywell Governmental Affairs can also provide drafting guidance.”
Gun Week contacted Briahna Taylor, a governmental affairs consultant with Gordon Thomas Honeywell, but she referred us to Steve Mace, president of Ammunition Coding System (ACS), the Seattle-based firm that now has a patent pending on this bullet coding technology. Ultimately, we were contacted by Russ Ford, ACS vice president for research and development.
The Gordon Thomas Honeywell Governmental Affairs website lists ACS as one of its clients.
The same model bill language used in Washington and Arizona has also been used as the basis for legislation introduced in New York, Illinois, California, Hawaii, Tennessee, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Mississippi. Pushing this legislation nationwide is a group calling itself Ammunition Accountability, not to be confused with ACS.
Ford said he and his partners developed the original language for the sample statute, working “closely with some legislators and a lobbyist, a retired deputy sheriff in California.”
“The basic premise of the bill came out of California,” he said, adding that Gordon Thomas Honeywell had polished the language.
Taylor noted that ammunition coding is not the same thing as “gun microstamping,” which requires etching of a unique code on the firing pin and inside the chamber of a semi-automatic pistol. “Microstamping” legislation has been enacted in California and will be a requirement for new handguns beginning in January 2010.
Anti-gun Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA) recently introduced “The National Crime Gun Identification Act,” which would mandate gun microstamping in all 50 states.
Coding and microstamping, Taylor said in a brief e-mail, “are very different technologies.”
ACS acknowledges on its website that “The implementation of the ACS technology will require legislation to establish an ammunition sale database. In those states that have already developed and implemented bar-coding systems that include driver’s licenses and other forms of identification, the integration of a database system to record ammunition sales will be relatively simple and inexpensive to implement.”
Ford told Gun Week that his motivation for pushing this technology is to separate responsible firearms owners from people who are misusing guns.
He also acknowledged that “our ultimate goal is to license the technology” to ammunition companies. Both he and Mace have other jobs, and the ammunition coding venture actually involves four friends, including him and Mace, who attended high school together. All are gunowners, Ford said.
He claimed that tests conducted a couple of years ago showed that laser etching can be done very fast, so that it would not slow down ammunition assembly lines.
In a “Q&A” link on the ACS website, the company insists that ammunition coding does not violate the Second Amendment, nor does it amount to a “backdoor gun registration scheme.”
The ACS website explains that, “State and federal legislative proposals to implement ACS would be based upon the existing firearm dealer licensing and gun tracing statutes enacted by Congress in 1968. The United States Supreme Court has, on numerous occasions, affirmed the constitutionality of the licensing and tracing provisions of the current federal law.
“Moreover, even the National Rifle Association supports the privacy protections contained in federal gun tracing regulations,” ACS stated.
However, that does not mean the NRA supports cartridge etching. The NRA and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, both oppose cartridge coding legislation.
“Legislation could be carefully drafted to insure that any information acquired under an ACS program could not be used to single out gunowners or function as a gun registration scheme. When a bullet or cartridge case is recovered at a crime scene, only duly authorized law enforcement agencies would have access to ACS bullet coding information. The ACS ‘trace’ would be completed using the same proven methods used by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies today in conducting crime gun traces. Only minimal personal identifying information is necessary to make ACS technology work (less personal information than is disclosed under normal circumstances by a person making a purchase by credit card or check).”
Activists Disagree
Many gun rights activists don’t see it that way, however. Heated discussions about the legislation have erupted on both TheHighRoad.org and KeepAndBearArms.com Internet gun rights forums.
Some directed their wrath at Democrats, whose party has traditionally pushed gun control schemes while New Jersey gun rights activist Michael Everall suggested that all of these bills are being promoted “by a single vendor as a commercial enterprise; in effect using (state legislators) as their sales force (without paying them).”
Ford acknowledged that “We are decidedly in favor of recouping our investment in this. We are a for-profit enterprise…and we would like to turn a profit someday.”
He said that Taylor, the consultant, had screened some nasty reactions from angry gunowners who have left threatening and/or obscene messages for ACS.
Ford insisted that the registration of ammunition purchases into a data base would not threaten anyone’s gun rights. He scoffed at the notion that anti-gun politicians might one day introduce legislation holding gunowners responsible if ammunition they purchased that was later stolen, might subsequently be used in a crime. Similar laws have been pushed to hold gunowners responsible if their firearms were stolen and misused.
He said criminals steal cars, often out of rental lots, to later be used in crimes, and nobody holds the rental companies responsible for that.
“What ammunition coding technology does and only does is provide a possible lead for law enforcement to follow,” Ford stated.
Besides, he asserted, “Gun registration already exists in this country, you know it, I know it.”
Sponsoring HB-3359 in Washington state are Reps. Al O’Brien, Jamie Pedersen, Dennis Flannigan and Brendan Williams.
Under provisions of their bill, the State Department of Licensing would establish and maintain a central ammunition database containing a registry of all pistol ammunition retailers who sell, offer for sale, loan, distribute or otherwise transfer pistol ammunition within the Evergreen State. Pistol ammunition retailers would be required to register with the Department of Licensing, and they would be required to report all pistol ammunition sales to that agency.
Coded Ammunition
Every round of handgun ammunition sold in the state would have to be coded with an alphanumeric code etched to the inside of the cartridge case and the base of the bullet. The same number would be printed on the cartridge box, and every buyer of pistol ammunition would have to provide a driver’s license or other identification, which would be recorded by the seller. The buyer’s date of birth would also be recorded, along with the date of the transaction.
Sellers who do not comply with the procedures or who sell non-coded ammunition would be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Meanwhile, in the Grand Canyon State, anti-gun Democrat Reps. Maria Garcia (13th Dist.) and Cloves C. Campbell (16th Dist.) both of Phoenix have been joined by Tucson Reps. Linda Lopez (29th Dist.) and David Bradley (28th Dist.), and Manuel Alvarez (25th Dist.) of Elfrida in sponsoring HB-2833, with nearly identical requirements to the Washington measure.
If passed, the law would take effect Jan. 1, 2009.
It would require that a unique serial number be etched or stamped on the bullet and inside each cartridge case of all calibers of handgun ammunition and cartridges for so-called assault weapons. Under this bill, the Arizona Department of Public Safety would maintain the ammunition records, and gunowners in the state would have until Jan. 1, 2011 to dispose of all current ammunition without the stamps.
In order for the Arizona measure to pass, it must be affirmed by at least two-thirds of the members of the legislature. In Washington state, it only takes a majority vote in the Democrat-controlled legislature.
Funding to pay for the creation of state databases would come from a half-cent “user fee” on each cartridge, which gun activists swiftly identified as an ammunition use tax.
“I understand people’s frustrations with legislation,” Ford admitted.
But he added that, “We, as firearms owners, everyday open up the newspaper, listen to radio, watch television and get news flashes about overwhelming misuse of firearms by people who are not going to attend legislative hearings and not vote on the issues and not be part of the process….As responsible gun owners we need to stand up and say ‘it isn’t us.’ ”
Continuing to stress that law-abiding gunowners have nothing to fear from coded ammunition mandates, Ford offered a challenge to his critics: “Where in America would you fire a shot and not claim responsibility for it?”
“Coded ammunition puts me in the pond of people that will never be considered a suspect,” he said. “That’s all this really does.”
Through the interview, Ford continued to acknowledge that profit is also a motivating factor.
“Certainly, we’re a non-profit organization and we’d really like to have that changed,” he said.
