Anti-Gunners: Sneaky, But Not Stupid

Lately, the anti-gunners have been lining up behind "microstamping," a process patented by New Hampshire-based ID Dynamics. Does the Brady Bunch like this technology because it would help to put criminals behind bars? No, they like it because it would drastically increase the price of a firearm and create havoc for firearms manufacturers. In case you’re not familiar with it, microstamping is a process that uses a laser to engrave the tip of a gun’s firing pin with the firearm’s make, model, and serial number.

In theory, this information is then imprinted onto fired cartridge cases. There’s currently a bill before the California legislature to require microstamped firing pins on a semi-autos sold in the state. On first consideration, microstamping doesn’t sound like a totally ridiculous idea. After all, microscopic laser-engraved serial numbers are preventing a lot of crime (as in fraud) in the gemstone and other industries.

At least, it doesn’t sound ridiculous for about two seconds, until you realize how easy it would be for a criminal to defeat the technology. And when you think about it for another second or two, you realize it’s only going to work with semi-autos where fired cases are left at a crime scene (and forensic science can already match fired cases to a specific firearm quite nicely). And what about the cost of this questionably useful technology and the problems it would create for gun manufacturers?

I have to admit, I hadn’t realized the myriad problems it would create until I read a National Shooting Sports Foundation’s website According to NSSF, SAAMI estimates a price increase of 50 to $100 per firearm. And think about this: Under federal law, the frame or receiver of the firearm is the part that must be serialized.

If microstamping were to become law, it would be necessary to serialize multiple parts (each manufactured at different times and locations) and coordinate the assembly to ensure that the parts all had the same serial number. How would an assembler know whether a component part had the correct serial number, since the number is microscopic in size?

Despite the best efforts of humans and machines, it would be impossible for a manufacturer to guarantee that only correctly corresponding, serialized parts were assembled into a firearm. Furthermore, all serialized parts would become worthless if any single part were rejected for quality-control reasons. Clearly, any attempt to comply with the requirements of microstamping would force a radical and complete redesign of manufacturing processes, costing firearms makers millions of dollars.

So there we have it, ladies and gentlemen. It’s easy to understand why ID Dynamics’ owner Todd Lizotte would lobby legislatures for mandatory microstamping; as the single-source supplier of the technology, he’d stand to become fabulously wealthy. But why would the anti-gunners push for laws that would do nothing to prevent crime? Because mandatory microstamping would do to firearm manufacturers what their ill-conceived product-liability lawsuits failed to do. Editor Keith Lawrence Technical