Ballistic Fingerprinting, again

By way of Alphecca's weekly report on the Bias comes this proposal to etch identification numbers into all ammunition (bullets and shell casings). It's a fairly scary proposal, especially since it will (in order to be useful) logically require registration of ammunition purchasers.

The idea is that, if each bullet and casing are numbered, then bullets and casings found at crime scenes can be traced back to the person who purchased them. That person can then be interviewed (ie, treated as a suspect). However, as usual, it's a law that exposes the ignorance of the gun control crowd regarding firearms. Such a bill would not work for a variety of reasons; let's examine the major ones.

First, not all ammunition will have these markings. It's easy to produce ammunition with home tools. All you need is some amount of lead or other metal, gunpower, and a brass case. Most people who shoot large quanities of ammunition already do this with expended factory ammunition (it's called "reloading"), simply to reduce the cost. In addition to this there are large stocks of ammunition already in place for all the popular rounds. Some of that is likely to be around for years even without people making a deliberate effort to save "unmarked" ammunition.

Second, criminals will easily be able to obtain ammunition that may be marked, but isn't registered to them. When they steal a firearm, they can also steal the ammunition to go along with the firearm. Or, they can go to a shooting range and collect the discarded brass from other shooters. This makes it easy to frame someone else for a crime; just drop some of their brass at the scene. Even if you don't have matching bullets, you'll confuse the issue, and there are good odds that the bullet will be sufficiently damaged to make retrieving a registration number intact difficult.

Third, simply enough, criminals do not use a great deal of ammunition. With the exception of murder, criminals generally prefer not to have to shoot their firearms at all. Firearms are weapons of intimidation first; actually firing it draws attention from the police in an urban area, and is generally a bad idea for a criminal who wants to get away with his crime. Even murderers tend to shoot as little as possible for the same reasons.

In comparison, even casual hunters and target shooters can easily go through literally thousands of rounds a month. Those who are more than casual may do the same in a single day of shooting. That puts the costs of the law on those who are legitimate, rather than those who are not. And it means that a single box of unmarked ammunition may be all a criminal requires for years.

As with most other gun control legislation, this proposal won't help prevent crime and won't help convict criminals. It's being discussed in California, following the governor's veto of a "register and fingerprint all ammunition purchasers" bill.