NY Mayors: Why Bad Guys Can’t Defeat Microstamping

The debate over mandatory microstamping (dictating that guns must stamp a shell casing with a unique identifying mark) rages on in The Empire State. As part of their efforts to add some firepower to the legislation, seven New York mayors have collaborated on a pro-microstamping polemic. Writing for timesunion.com, Mayors Jerry Jennings of Albany; Wayne J. Hall Sr. of Hempstead; David R. Roefaro of Utica; Stephanie A. Miner of Syracuse; Matthew T. Ryan of Binghamton; Patricia McDonald of Malverne; and Philip Amicone of Yonkers get their gun control freak on. They are all members of Pandering Politicians With Bodyguards. Sorry, Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Shots fired, criminal investigation, spent casings, well lookee here! Yada yada yada Yonkers. For some reason, the mayors decided to address the scheme’s fatal flaw: it won’t do squat. Criminals can’t simply file down the stamper. Or can they?

The technology cannot be defeated; the microstamp can’t be filed down, or sandpapered away without potentially making the gun inoperable. In fact, criminals rarely attempt to deface serial numbers. According to the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, less than 20 percent of guns recovered in crimes have their serial numbers scratched off.

Note the word “potentially.” I have not seen one statement from one manufacturer to the effect that this as-yet-to-be-invented stamping technology couldn’t be defeated by a file, or that doing so would impede the gun’s ability to fire.

And while we’re deconstructing this outright lie, doesn’t the fact that 80 percent of the guns recovered in crime are unmolested in the serial number department mean that THERE’S NO POINT TO THIS IDEA? If the bad guys aren’t worried about an easily traced serial number on a gun, why would they give a shit about the casings?

And if they did, why wouldn’t they either A) buy a revolver or B) pick up the damn casing or C) buy a little bag that catches the casings as they fire? It’s time for this microstamping nonsense to stop. The Mayors Against Illegal Guns should seek to enforce existing gun crime laws. Otherwise, they run the risk of exposing themselves as an anti-gun group using a stupid, ineffective law to mask their anti-gun agenda. Oh wait . . .