It won’t work, but they live in a fantasy world so what do they care about reality? The California Senate narrowly passed this piece of nonsense:
A novel proposal to etch identifying serial numbers on handgun ammunition sold in California narrowly passed the Senate yesterday, although supporters conceded the legislation remains a work in progress.
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A related measure, to require manufacturers to equip some semiautomatic handguns with components that would place an identifying code on spent cartridges, passed the Assembly 41-38 and was sent to the Senate.
The Senate measure is sponsored by Attorney General Bill Lockyer but so far has drawn tepid support from the balance of the state’s law enforcement community. It would link purchasers to handgun ammunition through an electronic swipe of a driver license at the point of sale.
Manufacturers say the proposal would force drastic changes to a high-volume, low-margin business. The required modifications to the manufacturing process, the companies warned, would either drive them out of business or send consumer prices skyward.
Sen. Joseph Dunn, a Garden Grove Democrat who introduced the bill for Lockyer, said he is working with law enforcement groups to resolve concerns about how to treat a massive existing inventory, possession of unmarked ammunition in homes and an exemption sought for shooting ranges.
Sen Bill Morrow, R-Oceanside, illustrated the magnitude of the potential ammunition stockpile in the state. He has used about half of a substantial supply his father left when he died in 1981, Morrow said.
“If I plan right, I figure it will get me through the rest of my life,” Morrow said.
Morrow and other opponents questioned whether the proposal, which has never been attempted anywhere else, was technologically feasible. Aides to Lockyer said manufacturers place individual serial numbers on many different consumer products.
The Assembly bill, AB 352 by Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, would apply only to future production of easily concealable semiautomatic handguns that have not passed a state safety test.
I haven’t done a whole lot of laughing recently but this la-la land statement remedies that condition:
Aides to Lockyer said manufacturers place individual serial numbers on many different consumer products.
How many manufacturers place individual serial numbers on something as small as the eraser on your pencil and have a current manufacturing cost of a penny?
I’ve commented on this hare-brained scheme before:
If I ran an ammuntion manufacturing company, I’d take the easy way out – no sales to or in California, period. I’d encourage all major ammo companies to do the same – if none of the ‘big guys’ will suffer the retooling expense, that’ll surely leave a niche open for a small manufacturer to produce the bullets and cartridges. At probably 5-6 times the current price of non-serialized ammo, but CA congresscritters need to learn that you have to pay for what you want.
CA Police departments will scream that their budgets can’t handle it – music to my ears.
And how about all the armed Feddies in the state? Will they have to buy the expensive serialized stuff? Will Air Marshalls flying into LAX have to reload?