Encoded Ammunition: Ammunition Accountability dot Org

Here's a piece of good news ... if we can call it that.

Thanks to David at War on Guns, we now have a link to a very professional looking website by someone self-called "AmmunitionAccountability.Org"

About Us

Ammunition Accountability is a newly forming group of ammunition coding technology supporters. Our group includes gun crime victims, industry representatives, law enforcement, public officials, public policy experts, and more. We are working together to pass legislation to make ammunition coding technology a reality.

Ammunition coding technology works by laser etching the back of each bullet with an alpha-numeric serial number. Then when a potential criminal purchases a box of 9mm cartridges, the box of ammunition and the bullets’ coding numbers would be connected to the purchaser in a statewide database. When a bullet is found at a crime scene, the code on the bullet can be read with a simple magnifying glass and then be run through a statewide database to determine who purchased the ammunition and where, providing a valuable investigative lead.

There are many ways that you can help us solve gun crime around the nation. For more information about our organization or information about the technology contact us: ACT(at)ammunitionaccountability.com.

Their "Legislation" page provides a map of America, with all states having introduced 'encoded ammunition' bills highlighted in red. The states are listed separately, and at the bottom of that page are links to ALL of the bills.

Arizona, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington.

This is a much more extensive list than I have compiled so far, and likely more current. (Note that Maryland is listed; I had discussed the 2007 bill, but now I find that Maryland has introduced a similar bill on January 30, 2008.) I knew about Arizona, but haven't yet examined the proposed legislation. States NOT on my list include New York and Pennsylvania.

Without yet having followed all of the links, I'm willing to stipulate that TWELVE states have introduced similar bills requiring ammunition serialization, in various forms.

Twelve. Out of fifty. That is very near to a quarter of the country. This moves the issue beyond a trend and (given the organization required to track the information) definitely supports the assumption that there is a central locus which is driving this state-by-state campaign.

This is NOT a 'grass-roots' campaign.

I don't know much about this organization yet, but you can do the follow-up research as well as I can if you care. My cursory view of the website statistics reveals nothing particularly revealing, such as server or geographic location.

However, I note in passing that several of the listed bills refer to firearms rather than ammunition, and further that several of them are identified as 'carried over from 2007' rather than representing 'new' legislation introduced in 2008.

UPDATE: January 25, 2008
Someone ("tangent4ronpaul) on a Ron Paul website posted an excellent analysis of the "Ammunition Accountability" chain of responsibility. I have no idea who 'tangent' is, but one thing is sure ... he's an excellent researcher.

I've only skimmed this post, but the links and the wealth of detail make this one of the premier starting points for anyone who really wants to follow the possible probable links in the chain of responsibility.