Canales News Briefs

April 26, 2005

Well folks, our AG "Mr. Bill" Lockyer has gone and done it again:

SB 357- The Press Conference:

If one moseys over to the AG's own website, one sees the official press release touting the latest risky (privacy goes out the window on this one) scheme from the Work Place Safety For Criminals Lobby.

In a nutshell, Mr. Bill and the usual suspects are proclaiming that a system that "registers" every pistol ammunition purchase in the state will somehow magically lead investigators to the perp (Other people's ammo is probably going to be the hottest item on future B&E specialists' lists, unless importation of illegal, non-serialized ammo turns out to be cheaper).

Unfortunately for Mr. Bill, the Powerpoint demonstration that went with the presentation shows how serial numbers marked only onto the base of lead and copper-jacketed bullets will survive impact with a car door as test target. It's unfortunate because projectiles not marked in such a way as to appear to be serialized prior to discharge do not meet with the requirements of SB 357 (Section 12314 d) 4) ). If the Powerpoint presentation is a correct representation of what was done, the "test" bullets were not marked on surfaces that would be visible in an assembled, pre-fired cartridge.

To reiterate, the bullets used by both the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department (thanks guys) and the DOJ in their "validation" of micro-embossing methods were non-compliant with the requirements of SB 357.

Of course, embossed markings that are deep enough to survive the gouging of lands in pistol barrels are more than likely to have a negative effect on performance later on (Problems could vary from accuracy reduction for Olympic-class .22 ammo to jacket delamination of police issue hollowpoint, something that should thrill the trauma surgery crowd something fierce).

And if the pictures noted in the DOJ Powerpoint presentation are of any indication of the size of the identifying marks expected to be on the ammunition of the future, the claims of visual "unaided" inspection appear to be specious (The pictures clearly appear to be the product of a camera with a "macro" lens). Given the small sample sizes (22 rounds fired by San Bernardino deputies, and 181 rounds fired by DOJ personnel) and the apparent lack of variance of angle of impact and through different media, it is hard to imagine the real world applicability of the DOJ's "testing" in this case.

Of course, this style of marking does not appear to be comparable when used with smaller caliber ammunition (The sample round fired appear to be .38 caliber and 9 mm caliber, both projectiles of which have cross-sections in the 0.355" range. .22 caliber ammunition is that much smaller, and subject to more tumbling which would deface surfaces bearing serial numbers.).

The battle against SB 357 will be one closely linked to supporting Mr. Bill Lockyer's run for the governorship. Given that Governor Schwarzennegger is sitting on a $ 40 million campaign warchest, the "encouragement" coming from Donkey Central and the Lamestream Media for the Governor to be a "one termer" seems premature in the least. Rejection of SB 357 in the Legislature will save the Democrat Party from the potential ignominy of running the "Claymation Man" against the Governator in 2006. Stay tuned.

Story elements can be found at:

http://ag.ca.gov/newsalerts/2005/05-028.htm

http://ag.ca.gov/newsalerts/2005/05-028.pdf

Respectfully,

Anthony Canales

SFVMC-NRA