Thursday, February 26, 2009

Developing new techniques to enable law enforcement agencies to more efficiently and successfully solve gun-related crimes is a good thing, right?

The Ammunition Accountability Act is a new legislation being proposed in 18 states so far, which include California, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington. The bill proposes that each individual box of ammunition manufactured by ammunition producers would be bar coded with its own unique code, and the same code laser-etched on the bottom of each bullet in that box.

When a box of ammunition is purchased, the barcode is scanned, and the purchase will be entered into a statewide database. Then, if a bullet from the box of ammunition is found at a crime scene, the etched code can help law enforcement agencies track the owner.

This seems like a sound theory, but issues of privacy rights are a major concern, not to mention the proposed 5 cent tax charged on every round in a standard box of ammunition, raising prices by approximately $2.50 per box.

The group proposing the Ammunition Accountability Act also happens to be comprised of the developers of the patented technology, and so the question of financial gain as a motivator to pass the bill is also an issue.

The legislation would seek to force all ammunition producers to utilize the coding technology, and allow only coded ammunition to be sold to consumers.

Opposing viewpoints regarding the Ammunition Accountability Act can be found at http://ammunitionaccountability.org and http://www.nationalgunrights.org/ammoaccountability.shtml

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