Stamp THIS!

CA Legislative Info and Contact Tools


Microstamping ammunition in Kalifornia (AB 352) has been defeated!

(GIF courtesy of NRA Members' Council of California)


You may recall that California tried this kind of Closet Gun Control before ... last year, and it took a year to defeat it in the Senate. I blogged about it April 27, 2005, June 5, 2005, June 8, 2005, and June 12, 2005.


In the June 12, 2005 article I said:

Another bill, AB352 (not previously mentioned here), would require that new firearms sold in California after a certain date would automatically stamp each cartridge case with the serial number unique to this firearm. Parenthetically, we should note that this constitutes ipso facto registration of every new pistol sold in California, because the purported purpose of this measure is to aid in criminal investigations whenever a firearm is used in the commission of a crime.

In order for "... (automatic stamping of) ... each cartridge case with the serial number unique to this firearm..." to be effective, ALL applicable firearms must be registered.

So much for the 2nd amendment.

This may not, in retrospect, be completely clear.

If you (a Law Enforcement Officer) happen upon a scene where an ejected case is found, you may discover that the case is indeed stamped with "... the serial number unique to this firearm..."

This is of little value without being able to tie the serial number of the firearm to the owner. The only way to do this is to require that each firearm be registered.

This means the firearm must be registered, and the logical extention is that when registration is legally required, confiscation cannot be far behind. California has proved that logical extention when it first required registration of "assault weapons", then (California's Attorney General Bill Lockyer) used that same registration list to enforce confiscation ... without compensation, if you recall.

Fortunately, AB 352 has (as of August 31, 2006) FINALLY been voted down. It's difficult to imagine how an illegal gun-control law could fail in Kalifornia, but it has, and that's A Good Thing.

Jim Shepherd in "The Outdoor Wire", (my favorite online Shooting Community Information Resource; subscribe here), has the story:

The California legislature has failed to pass the "MicroStamp" legislature reported last week in The Shooting Wire. As introduced, AB 352 would have led to significant price increases for consumers on all firearms, with the Attorney General of California then having the right to require serialization of all ammunition.

Micro stamping would have made it difficult to sell firearms in California; serialization would have ended sales as all firearms and ammunition manufacturers agree that while micro stamping would have been difficult, serialization would have been downright impossible.

Despite the failure of the measure, it is another example of the measures anti-firearms legislators are willing to take in their campaign to remove firearms from legal owners in California. Micro stamping, the heart and supposed intent of the bill would have forced manufacturers to use a patented process available from a single manufacturer. Legal experts tell us that fact could have formed the basis for a stay of the bill. Neither did the fact that micro stamping was being mis-applied in this supposed application. Micro stamping has proven effective in identifying tiny computer components, but it was not designed to turn the firing pins of every firearm into a tiny stamping machine, pounding the model, serial number and manufacturer of the firearm into every shell casing.

The damming fact about the legislation's intent, however, wasn't in any of the hard facts, but the soft actions taken to "slip in" language permitting the Attorney General to require serialization of all ammunition sold in California "at a future date." That brought a collaborative campaign against AB 352 by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), National Rifle Association, California Association of Firearms Retailers and the California Rifle and Pistol Association.

"We could not be more pleased with the outcome of this vote," said Lawrence G. Keane, senior vice president and general counsel for the NSSF, "this legislation would not only have forced an unproven and costly technology upon both firearms consumers and taxpayers, but it would have allowed for the banning of all ammunition in California."

Micro stamping and ammo serialization opposition was not limited to the industry. Major law enforcement and taxation opponents also opposed AB 352 as price increases of as much as $150 per gun were projected for consumers and all taxpayers would have paid for micro stamping on law enforcement firearms.

"We have always said that further research into microstamping, like the study currently being conducted at the University of California, Davis, would be necessary before the legislature considers mandating this very dubious technology," added Keane. "By defeating AB 352, the California Assembly passed a measure of common sense."

That study not withstanding, micro stamping had also been proven by independent research to be easily defeated by either using common household tools to remove the stamping surface from original firing pins on weapons or by simply using a replacement firing pin and removing the original.

While the defeat of AB 352 may be passage of a measure of common sense, the preponderance of evidence from California may indicate that common sense will only prevail until the next effort to ban firearms.

We'll keep you posted.

--- Jim Shepherd

You may remember that I talked last year about Kalifornia's SB 357, which proposed that all ammunition sold in that state be pre-stamped with a serial number which would allow the identification of each round by manufacturer and even the individual box ... which would presumably identify the original purchaser.

You may also remember that I said it would increase the price of ammunition ten-fold, without producing the proposed benefit of identifying criminals by the ammunition left behind.

If you don't remember, or weren't aware of the controversy at that time, I urge you to go to the links published above and relive those sterling days of yesteryear when Kalifornia's Korrupt Kongresspersons started their end-run to use phoney Crime Control laws to generate Economic hardship on legitimate gunowner.

Their end purpose was Gun Control, and the curtailment of Constitutionally guaranteed rights.

These people don't have the Good of The People in mind, folks. They don't want to solve crime. They couldn't care less about criminals. They will always, eventually, catch the Gypsies Tramps and Thieves.

They want to disarm the people who elected them. They want to control you.

They're afraid of you, because you have the ultimate means to curtail governmental corruption.

Any politician who votes for gun control does NOT have your best interests at heart. He wants to enslave you, for his own benefit.

And the politicians who tell you different?

They're the worst of the lot.

Use YOUR vote to kick the blackguards out of office. You don't need to be politically savvy. All you need to do is review their public record on Gun Control Issues.

If they vote for Gun Control, they vote against you. All other issues are just background.

UPDATE: September 11, 2006

An August 25, 2006 article in CNSNEWS.COM ("Gun 'microstamping' bill passes California Senate") ... obviously written before the final vote ... has more information on the bill.

It's frightening to see how close this transparent effort to effect gun control in California came to becoming the law of the land.

Just one more reason for me to be thankful that I moved back to Oregon from California back in 1976,

H/T - Front Sight, Press