This first came to my attention in the Long Beach (CA) Press Telegram. They gathered it from the Sacramento Bee (reg. req.).
SACRAMENTO Hoping to find shooting suspects more quickly, California may become the first state to require semiautomatic pistols to stamp their make, model and serial number onto every cartridge they fire.
Proposed legislation would require semiautomatic models produced after January 2007 to carry the innovative microstamping technology.
When peace officers find empty cartridges shell casings at crime scenes, the identifying stamp could help determine what gun fired them and, through an existing database, who purchased the weapon.
"We expect that it will be a very valuable tool and will help solve hundreds of additional crimes, if it's implemented,' said Assemblyman Paul Koretz, a West Hollywood Democrat who proposed the bill.
and
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken no position on the measure. Attorney General Bill Lockyer supports the concept but has not yet endorsed Koretz's bill, spokesman Nathan Barankin said.
Basically the Calif State Legislature wants guns to imprint a mark on the shell/cartridge that will ID the gun that shot the bullet from it. With this the police will be able to ID who was holding the gun and where the bullet went. It will also have a time stamp to let the police know when it was fired and which direction the gun was pointed.
I'm certain too that the cartridge will be emblasoned as to the attitude of the shooter so that if hate was in their heart they will be able to tack on the requisite hate crime charges.
This will be especially handy if the person firing the gun was aiming at a criminal in self defense. If it could be proved the person holding the gun, firing in self defense hated criminals then the police will know that the culprit was a vigilante and the crime of self defense was premeditated. Special circumstances can then be found to give those defending themselves and firing a gun to do so the death penalty. That will take care of those pesky gun advocates!
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