The Brady Campaign made a press release today urging California to pass the microstamping bill:
Microstamping technology was most recently demonstrated last Friday at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill. There, the co-inventor of the technology, Todd Lizotte, conducted a successful live fire demonstration of the technology at the building’s shooting range with media
and Hill staff in attendance. Participants were able to see the remarkable clarity and redundancy of the technology when Lizotte projected a microscopic view of a microstamped cartridge onto a projector screen. “All of the questions about microstamping have been answered,” said Joshua Horwitz, Executive Director of the Educational Fund to Stop Gun
Violence. “It has passed test after test. Law enforcement leaders want this. Community groups want this. It’s time to get it done.”
Interesting. I thought guns were illegal in Washington D.C. I’m curious to know exactly how the firearm was brought into the district, and under what conditions this test was conducted. Of course, it’s quite possible and probably that they wouldn’t face prosecution here, because of the Parker decision (which they are against) in any case.  Wouldn’t that be a fun bit of irony?
Of course, it isn’t true that this technology is a panacea:
To test the effects of repeated firing, Beddow fitted engraved firing pins into six Smith and Wesson .40-caliber handguns that were issued to California Highway Patrol cadets for use in weapons training. After firing about 2,500 rounds, the letter/number codes on the face of the firing pins were still legible with some signs of wear. But the bar codes and dot codes around the edge of the pins were badly worn.
They also found that results varied widely depending on the type of firearm used, and the type of ammunition. Of course, there’s also this:
Codes engraved on the face of the firing pin could easily be removed with household tools, Beddow found.
And you can bet, just like criminals remove serial numbers, they’ll remove these as well. And these will be much more easily and thoroughly removed than serial numbers.
I’m not sure this serves any other purpose than to frustrate manufacturers, and drive smaller custom shops and gun makers out of business. That would be fine by most of the groups who are supporting this nonsense.
The wear issue isn’t a problem for them…
They’ll put the onus on the owner to know that their markings are worn and replace the firing pin. Never mind the markings aren’t visible to the naked eye and the firearm otherwise functions correctly.
They’ll put it in the same category as intentionally defacing a serial number.
It’s not their problem – it’s YOUR problem!
I hope this is one issue that all manufacturers can get together and boycott California. It is hard to keep them from undercutting each other, but this initiative must be a freaking nightmare from a manufacturing point of view.
I agree. The state can’t keep passing all this stupid shit and not have it hurt them. A defacto ban on guns in the state might be exactly what they are after, and I say give it to them. Let’s see how their voters like it after that.