So, Arnold Schwarzenegger signed off on the "microstamping bill". The legal definition revolve on what is considered an "unsafe" weapon. Essentially, it means that from now on, all newly manufactured semiautomatic handguns intended for sale will need to be made in such a way that the spent cartridge casings will have the serial number of the gun engraved onto them.
I tried to make my point in this entry from august 31, explaining what I perceive as flaws in this new technology, flaws which I hope will be dealt with. I have to be honest with myself and my audience, there is nothing I loathe more than people continuously pushing plans that have been tried and which have failed.
But microstamping is new, it has not been tried.
Could it work?
I projected that it could be helpful in a very limited amount of cases, as I focused on actually capturing criminals, but somebody claiming to be Todd Lizotte, one of the major designers of the microstamping technology, left a comment on my previous post. The last portion of this post mentions that criminals don't intend to let the law, be it armed with microstamping legislation or not, catch up with them.
Toddlizotte had the following to say:
"I do believe microstamping can help, however I will admit, I am bias to some degree, my point though is how law enforcement uses information to target handgun trafficking networks.
The FBI and ATF have developed ways of analyzing certain criminal enterprises by the patterns they form when they engage in criminal behavior. The critical element to defining these patterns and analyzing them is good INTEL or “real-time” data.
The FBI states that through their work, criminal enterprises or gangs are creatures of habit, and they often establish specific patterns in their activities. For firearm trafficking, this means they might prefer a certain type of straw purchaser, a specific source location or licensee, or a favorite method of distribution. Such patterns can be found through analysis of data; the problem is the current data is acquired when the firearm is recovered, instead of when the firearm is first used.
Firearm trafficking becomes vulnerable to these new techniques, link analysis and social network analysis, when an analysis of the data can form into patterns within a narrower window of time.
So, when trying to find unique ways of getting law enforcement the information they need to combat trafficking, while maintaining the rights of law abiding gun owners, it seems possible, microstamping will strike that balance.
Best regards,
Todd"
His full comments can be found here.
It would appear that I have trapped myself; in spite of my disbelief in this technology, I will maintain two arguements in its favour.First I will give it the benefit of the doubt, we should allow it to fail along with all the previous golden bullet techniques that have passed by and passed away.
Second: pattern recognition is everything, if not William Gibsons best book. As a scientist I have a near religious devotion to find and isolate logical, predictable patterns. If that's what this law is really about, then I will support it on that front.
I still have other issues with this new legislation though. I still do not believe that this legislation will help put individual criminals in jail any better than a well funded homicide branch would. I resent the idea that law enforcement officers would still be walking about with guns deemed unsafe by state law, civil suits ensue?
Last but not least, what are the implementation costs? I couldn't find one when this technology was brought up, and nobody seems to worry too much about it now either.
Oh well, I'm off to invest in Oregon and Texan companies specialized in spare parts for selfoading handguns, cheers Herr Terminegger!
Showing posts with label microstamping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label microstamping. Show all posts
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Friday, August 31, 2007
Is microstamping the answer?
A recent hype in gun crime reduction is microstamping, it boils down to this:
When a criminal shoots somebody with a self loading weapon, he often leaves behind cartridge casings. Microstamping the components of a gun which come into contact with the casing would allow for symbols to be placed on those casings as they are fired. which can the be traced back to the gun, and to the original owner of the gun.
The Brady campaign has placed links to a series of videos hosted on youtube concerning microstamping, those videos can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_bH1g5xRT4
there are a total of six parts to that movie
The components would be engraved using a pulse laser. I personally have most faith in engraving the firing pin and the breech face. The latter is the only one which cannot be easily replaced, though still occluded or defaced. The extractor and ejector are simple solid pieces of metal which can easily be replaced by self-made replacements. It's plausible that criminals will go through the trouble of doing this. The firing pin too can be defaced or replaced by a home made variant, though it's not as easy to manufacture one yourself. Also, defacing a firing pin may result in a less reliable firearm. (depends on make and model)
The ease with which the breech face of a handgun can be defaced depends entirely on the type of the firearm. It can be remarkably easy or hard.
When would it be applicable?
Not all guns eject spent cartridge casings, according to "guns used in crime", a publication by the bureau of justice statistics / us department of justice, 51.5% of all stolen handguns are revolvers, those do not automatically eject cartridge casings after each shot.
However: the 10 most traced models of firearms all ejected casings (shells in one case, the mossburg 500 shotgun, though this one doesn't do so directly after each shot. (12ga). (1994)
The same study also provides good documentation concerning homicides in Philadelphia (1995), 95% of all homicides were committed using handguns, 66% of those were revolvers, 23% of the time, a semi-automatic handgun was used.
Note: the 11% which is unaccounted for is not explained, however it's often impossible to determine within acceptable certainty whether a shot was fired from an autoloading pistol or a revolver, because certain cartridges can be fired from either.
Microstamped casings will only be recovered in a limited amount of cases. A lot of times (sometimes the bigger part), the weapons used do not eject casings after each shot. Furthermore, autoloading pistols can be fitted with "brass catchers", simple contraptions which capture the ejected cartridge casing. These are commonly used by target shooters who load their own cartridges.
This brings us to another point of criticism: cartridge casing can be re-used easely. People commonly collect casings from shooting ranges to sell online Only newly manufactured guns could be fitted with microstamped components. It would take a while for the current supply of illegal guns to dry up, but it would happen over time, a very log time. Not only is this one more thing to take into consideration as we compare cost to effectiveness, but it also means that as long as there are still non-microstamped guns in circulation, the casing may lead to the wrong person.
If somebody were to buy a microstamped gun and take it to the range and shoot it, but chooses not to collect his casings, or tries to but misses one, this would effectively mean that there's a stamped cartridge out there ready to be reloaded and re-fired.
Anybody with such casings, some basic tools and the information provided on the internet could manufacture cartridges which would incriminate a completely innocent person!
There was an elaborate article in the AFTE journal vol.38-1 2006, reviewing microstamping. The main point there was that if somebody used a microstamped gun in a crime, several cartridges may be necessary to be able to read the information stamped on the casing, because a lot of the information from the components is not transferred to the casing.
Some types of firearms are will transfer this information considerably better however, as seen in the video's sponsored by the Brady campaign.
So what happens after: "Shots are fired, casings have been ejected (less than 50% of the time), Casings are recovered and the serial number of the firearm is found."?
Using this information, the original owner of the gun is paid a visit and inquired about the current whereabouts of said weapon. Maybe there will be some cases where the weapon hasn't been reported stolen. Fat chance? I'm afraid not.
I'm not adversed to microstamping, I think it's a valid technique to be used in forensic science. My condensed opinions.
-It can only work in a severely limited amount of cases.
-Trying to keep track of people who let their guns get stolen once a month seems less work
-There has not yet been a full evaluation of the implementation price, I want to see one.
-It's very easy to get around the technology, especially if the crime is premeditated.
-If not premeditated, one only needs the calmness to pick up the casings.
(unless a revolver was used
I'm not buying into this, yet ... if it turns out to be extremely cheap, then sure, why not? (Note: I'm well aware that the price might turn out to be astronomical) But I'm not getting my hopes up, and the Brady campaign shouldn't be getting peoples hopes up either.
When a criminal shoots somebody with a self loading weapon, he often leaves behind cartridge casings. Microstamping the components of a gun which come into contact with the casing would allow for symbols to be placed on those casings as they are fired. which can the be traced back to the gun, and to the original owner of the gun.
The Brady campaign has placed links to a series of videos hosted on youtube concerning microstamping, those videos can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_bH1g5xRT4
there are a total of six parts to that movie
The components would be engraved using a pulse laser. I personally have most faith in engraving the firing pin and the breech face. The latter is the only one which cannot be easily replaced, though still occluded or defaced. The extractor and ejector are simple solid pieces of metal which can easily be replaced by self-made replacements. It's plausible that criminals will go through the trouble of doing this. The firing pin too can be defaced or replaced by a home made variant, though it's not as easy to manufacture one yourself. Also, defacing a firing pin may result in a less reliable firearm. (depends on make and model)
The ease with which the breech face of a handgun can be defaced depends entirely on the type of the firearm. It can be remarkably easy or hard.
When would it be applicable?
Not all guns eject spent cartridge casings, according to "guns used in crime", a publication by the bureau of justice statistics / us department of justice, 51.5% of all stolen handguns are revolvers, those do not automatically eject cartridge casings after each shot.
However: the 10 most traced models of firearms all ejected casings (shells in one case, the mossburg 500 shotgun, though this one doesn't do so directly after each shot. (12ga). (1994)
The same study also provides good documentation concerning homicides in Philadelphia (1995), 95% of all homicides were committed using handguns, 66% of those were revolvers, 23% of the time, a semi-automatic handgun was used.
Note: the 11% which is unaccounted for is not explained, however it's often impossible to determine within acceptable certainty whether a shot was fired from an autoloading pistol or a revolver, because certain cartridges can be fired from either.
Microstamped casings will only be recovered in a limited amount of cases. A lot of times (sometimes the bigger part), the weapons used do not eject casings after each shot. Furthermore, autoloading pistols can be fitted with "brass catchers", simple contraptions which capture the ejected cartridge casing. These are commonly used by target shooters who load their own cartridges.
This brings us to another point of criticism: cartridge casing can be re-used easely. People commonly collect casings from shooting ranges to sell online Only newly manufactured guns could be fitted with microstamped components. It would take a while for the current supply of illegal guns to dry up, but it would happen over time, a very log time. Not only is this one more thing to take into consideration as we compare cost to effectiveness, but it also means that as long as there are still non-microstamped guns in circulation, the casing may lead to the wrong person.
If somebody were to buy a microstamped gun and take it to the range and shoot it, but chooses not to collect his casings, or tries to but misses one, this would effectively mean that there's a stamped cartridge out there ready to be reloaded and re-fired.
Anybody with such casings, some basic tools and the information provided on the internet could manufacture cartridges which would incriminate a completely innocent person!
There was an elaborate article in the AFTE journal vol.38-1 2006, reviewing microstamping. The main point there was that if somebody used a microstamped gun in a crime, several cartridges may be necessary to be able to read the information stamped on the casing, because a lot of the information from the components is not transferred to the casing.
Some types of firearms are will transfer this information considerably better however, as seen in the video's sponsored by the Brady campaign.
So what happens after: "Shots are fired, casings have been ejected (less than 50% of the time), Casings are recovered and the serial number of the firearm is found."?
Using this information, the original owner of the gun is paid a visit and inquired about the current whereabouts of said weapon. Maybe there will be some cases where the weapon hasn't been reported stolen. Fat chance? I'm afraid not.
I'm not adversed to microstamping, I think it's a valid technique to be used in forensic science. My condensed opinions.
-It can only work in a severely limited amount of cases.
-Trying to keep track of people who let their guns get stolen once a month seems less work
-There has not yet been a full evaluation of the implementation price, I want to see one.
-It's very easy to get around the technology, especially if the crime is premeditated.
-If not premeditated, one only needs the calmness to pick up the casings.
(unless a revolver was used
I'm not buying into this, yet ... if it turns out to be extremely cheap, then sure, why not? (Note: I'm well aware that the price might turn out to be astronomical) But I'm not getting my hopes up, and the Brady campaign shouldn't be getting peoples hopes up either.
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