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Opinion: Marking Bullets Way Off Target |
The legislature
and the public need to know that the general concept of a ballistic
database has been discredited by one research study after another, most
recently by the National Academy of Sciences.
The academy was hired by the U.S. Department of Justice to study the
feasibility of establishing a national ballistic imaging database. In a
report published March 5, the academy recommended that no database be
established now. As for micro-stamping, the academy said more research is
needed, particularly on the questions of the durability of micro-stamping
and its susceptibility to tampering.
Indeed, regardless of whether new technology is employed to leave tiny
marks on spent ammunition, the parts of guns that make these marks could
be altered easily and quickly with a small screwdriver or a file. This
would make the images in a government database useless.
And at what cost? In
Maryland, a ballistic database was started in 2000. Five years and $3
million later, the database made headlines because — at last — one
criminal conviction was achieved through the use of the database.
One reason that these databases have little value is that of the 220
million firearms in private ownership in the United States, only a
fraction of 1 percent are ever used in crime. Establishing a firearms
database to solve crimes is like drafting an army to battle a housefly.
The proposal to put serial numbers on ammunition is reminiscent of the
"smart gun" proposals of 10 years ago.
In the 1990s, several start-up companies lobbied here and elsewhere for
legislation that would outlaw the sale of guns that did not incorporate
some technology to prevent "unauthorized users" from shooting. The
proposals may have sounded sensible at first, but they were riddled with
practical problems and were not supported by law enforcement. Now those
start-up companies are history.
One of the many problems with serial numbers for ammunition is the fact
that billions of rounds of ammunition without serial numbers are currently
on the shelves in shops and in private homes. Ammunition is not
perishable, and many of these rounds may remain unfired for years or
decades. So it would not be difficult for criminals to purchase, steal and
hoard old ammunition that has no serial number. (As a rule, criminals do
not use much ammunition. Unlike law-abiding gun owners, criminals tend not
to spend Saturday morning at a gun club, shooting several hundred rounds
for fun.)
Furthermore, the serialization of ammunition shares a problem with
micro-stamping: it would not be difficult to disassemble a round of
ammunition and obliterate the serial number. A numbered round could also
be dismantled and reloaded with a number-less bullet. These measures would
be child's play to someone who is serious about using a gun to commit a
violent crime.
When these legislative proposals are boiled down, the reduction amounts to
snake oil — a touted preparation with a reputation for curing nothing.
There is no good reason to buy it.
Ralph D. Sherman of
New Britain is a lawyer and the chairman of Gunsafe, a Second
Amendment organization in Connecticut.