cuchulainn
Member
Intall finger prints? Install? 
Oh, and why didn't we think of this: We stop criminals from altering markings by ... ta-da-da ... making it illegal (where's a slaps head smiley when you need it)
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\200301\CUL20030113c.html
Oh, and why didn't we think of this: We stop criminals from altering markings by ... ta-da-da ... making it illegal (where's a slaps head smiley when you need it)
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\200301\CUL20030113c.html
N.J. Bill Requires Repair Shops To 'Fingerprint' Guns
By Robert B. Bluey
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
January 13, 2003
(CNSNews.com) - New Jersey has already enacted the nation's first "smart gun" law. Now the gun-control debate has shifted to ballistics fingerprinting and legislation that would require repair shops to install these markings on firearms.
The bill's sponsor, Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), said it is part of a much broader ballistics fingerprinting initiative that has already passed the Democrat-controlled Assembly and is awaiting action from the evenly split Senate.
Weinberg's bill is still in committee, but she called it a crucial component to state's gun-control efforts.
"This bill was designed to answer those naysayers who say you can't do ballistics fingerprinting because criminals can make changes to obfuscate those markings," she said. "We're now saying it's illegal to make changes."
But Second Amendment supporters in New Jersey and across the country pointed to other states' attempts at ballistics fingerprinting as evidence that it does not work.
Gun Owners of America, which has lobbied against fingerprinting, claims no crimes have been solved as a result of the technology in either Maryland or New York, the two states that have already implemented it.
Maryland has recorded about 17,000 shell casings since the law took effect in October 2000, while New York has taken more than 29,000 ballistic fingerprints, according to the group. Neither state has convicted anyone based on the technology, said Erich Pratt, the group's spokesman.
"This is a registration scheme and that's unconstitutional and very dangerous," Pratt said. "Registration has been used in this country in places like New York City to help police confiscate firearms from law-abiding gun owners. This would be a very disastrous direction for New Jersey to take."
Calls to gun control groups, the Violence Policy Center and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, were not returned.
National Rifle Association spokesman Ted Novin agreed that Weinberg's bill would amount to an expensive registration scheme. He said it might ultimately drive gun owners out of the state to have their firearms repaired.
The "smart gun" law that was signed by Democrat Gov. James E. McGreevey last month requires new handguns to be equipped with a device that only allows the gun's owner to fire it. The technology has not yet been developed, and the law will not take effect until three years after a handgun with the technology is released for sale.
Nancy Ross, spokeswoman for the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, said that victory has given gun-control advocates momentum to introduce new measures. She doubted that Weinberg's bill would have much success in the Legislature.
"This is a ridiculous requirement on law-abiding citizens and a restriction that will hurt ordinary people," Ross said. "The whole debate on these issues has nothing to do with safety. It has to do with an ideological political agenda that poisons any discussion about making people safe or ending violence."
All original CNSNews.com material, copyright 1998-2003 Cybercast News Service.