tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31268933.post5637128008210545876..comments2023-03-08T06:33:55.817-05:00Comments on Warthog's Wrants: BATFE's new StormtrooperWarthoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10507247914387544169noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31268933.post-44228678800359815992008-02-26T10:52:00.000-05:002008-02-26T10:52:00.000-05:00somehow there seems to be a conlift in your commen...somehow there seems to be a conlift in your comments. so the criminal is too dumb to file off a serial number, change a firing pin, or police his brass, but smart enough to case a store, track a customer, case his house and schedule, and then steal the guns. We don't need more government programs or data on our personal property, what we need is the police to do their job, and put these offenders away for life, instead of letting them out to commit these crimes again, most of these problems stem from repeat offenders that could have been stopped. and if the guns were stolen anyways, then having the stamped number won't help much, since regular ballistics has been able to trace recovered bullets for decades anywaysAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31268933.post-15150621811335795662007-11-18T00:27:00.000-05:002007-11-18T00:27:00.000-05:00Hello my name is Todd Lizotte, I am the co-invento...Hello my name is Todd Lizotte, I am the co-inventor of Microstamping.<BR/><BR/>MICROSTAMPING AS A DETERRENT:<BR/><BR/>An argument I have seen is that microstamping could create a deterrent and shift criminals from semi-auto handguns to revolvers. In essence this would mean a shift or reduction of a criminal’s effective firepower.<BR/><BR/>Plainly speaking firepower is the amount of damage you can cause within a given time frame. However, effective firepower is a combination of variables including the type of firearm, the ammunition, and most importantly the gun handling skill of the shooter.<BR/><BR/>Firing a revolver accurately takes more skill than a semi-auto handgun. And when you have no skill at all in firing, odds are you are going to be limited in the damage you can cause. <BR/>Another point is revolvers are “dual action”; the criminal has to pull the trigger fully for each round fired where as semi-auto are typically single action firearms. <BR/><BR/>Most drive by shootings cause death by the fact that a hail of bullets is fired randomly within seconds and reloading is easy by exchanging a magazine.<BR/><BR/>What is good about microstamping is that AB1471 targets the growing use of semi-automatic handguns used to commit crimes. Microstamping makes sense for that segment and if it creates a shift to revolvers, knives or baseball bats, that shift will at least give potential victims a fighting chance or possibly limits the chance of innocent people becoming victims of stray bullets.<BR/><BR/>MICROSTAMPING: PLANTED CARTRIDGE THEORY<BR/><BR/>Forensic investigators use crime scene reconstruction methods to analyze various patterns; scene evidence and projectile trajectories are used to track back to the firing location and to match projectile location to cartridge location, i.e. cartridge ejection patterns. Projectile locations have a specific location and an angular trajectory (They can show movement of the shooter, angle and elevation of the firearm), so it is possible to match the two patterns.<BR/><BR/>In an exchange of gun fire; the criminal is firing the handgun and potentially moving at the same time. These actions are mirrored in the pattern of the cartridge casings being ejected. If the person then randomly drops or plants cartridges, those dropped cartridges would not follow the pattern that occurred during the actual action. <BR/><BR/>A common criminal who commits a murder or engages in a fire fight, is not going to be in the right frame of mind to take into consideration these types of ideas. Fight or flight response takes over. <BR/><BR/>The other big issue with the dropped/planted cartridge scenario is that the physical evidence is analyzed; powder or gun shot residue (its type, age, and oxidation), oxidation of the cartridges themselves (fresh versus old), finger-prints on the cartridges, odd things (cartridge with pocket lint, dirt, fingerprints, odd primers, reload status) and the standard ballistic markings on the projectile (ejector marks, extractor marks, firing pin marks). Most forensic professional tend to laugh at these ideas. People who comment on these scenarios figure highly trained forensic examiners can’t tell a freshly fired cartridge from one that has been sitting on a firing range for a few weeks or months.<BR/><BR/>This scenario also requires that the criminal can locate a firing range, find the right caliber cartridge of the same vintage, make, fired from the same firearm that they own.<BR/>If the criminal reloads, they will need to use a similar powder and projectile consistent with that ammo and the same primer. This is a tall order for the common criminal who truly cares less about these issues, since in their mind they will never get caught.<BR/><BR/>The planted cartridge scenario is not realistic for nearly all gang or moment of opportunity based heinous acts or crimes.<BR/><BR/>Another point is that planted cartridges have a history and by planting them at a crime scene the criminal is just leaving more leads to follow. Maybe those planted cartridges will lead to the place where the cartridges were taken, maybe that range has video taping system (most do these days for liability), or requires people to show drivers license and sign a form to enter the range area. <BR/><BR/>By planting cartridges at the crime scene the criminal is providing further opportunities to recover good finger prints and law enforcement can use other data and network information to track the person down since most people who commit these types of crimes tend to have extensive police records and have fingerprints on file.<BR/><BR/>The fact is that planting cartridges is an interesting theory, but in reality, it doesn't happen now and modern forensic crime scene investigation methods are more than capable of overcoming this type of TV based scenario.<BR/><BR/>IMPACT TO LAW ABIDING CITIZEN:<BR/><BR/>Microstamping is a passive device, where no registry and no bureaucracy are required. It uses the same trace system that law enforcement currently uses today and all of the info is held by the firearms industry. There is no change to the legal owner’s liability or responsibility. <BR/><BR/>One specific invariable, is if you have your firearm stolen, with or without microstamping and it is subsequently found at a crime scene, it doesn’t matter; you are getting a knock at your door. So, unless you are a very unlucky person who gets their firearms stolen this does not affect you. Even if you firearm is stolen, this at least helps the police ID the firearm the first time it is used instead of years later.<BR/><BR/>I view this as the most benign technology possible to provide law enforcement with a new tool for identifying trafficking patterns, while maintaining firearm owner rights.<BR/><BR/>As for cost to the industry, we have press released that the technology will be provided to industry on a royalty free basis for semi-automatic handguns for commercial applications. So there is no cost to use the technology by the industry.<BR/><BR/>People wonder why we did this. The reason is simple; the patents cover other applications outside the field of firearms that we want to pursue. To allow us to do that, we would provide a license to industry that covers only the firearm related application.<BR/><BR/>THE BENEFIT TO LAW ENFORCEMENT:<BR/><BR/>Law enforcement uses trace data like microstamping to pin point crime gun sources, which are either stolen firearms or straw purchased firearms. The shorter the time between the first time the firearm is sold and the time it is identified is important data to map patterns of trafficking, to target firearm trafficking networks.<BR/><BR/>Microstamping if definitely an investment towards the future, providing firearm trafficking data within a shorter time frame, since microstamping identifies the firearm the first time it is used, instead of when it is first recovered. Figuring the cost per firearm is about a couple cups of coffee at the worst case scenario.<BR/><BR/>Firearm trafficking becomes vulnerable to new data analysis techniques such as, Pattern and Link analysis as well as social network analysis, but only when the analysis of the data can form into patterns within a “narrower window of time”.<BR/><BR/>Microstamping is targeting the traffickers, the theft rings and the network. Most people do not understand that the reason firearms get stolen from someone’s house is that for some reason those people are targeted.<BR/><BR/>It is not uncommon for firing ranges or gun stores to be staked out by criminal networks. These people want to find who have firearms, follow them home and find out their schedule and then steal the firearms. In some cases it is people they know who steal the firearms. So, when you report this theft, this information is used in a map to identify a possible theft ring.<BR/><BR/>This is just like hunting terrorists; you need INTEL from all different sources to begin to develop a pattern, that pattern then allow you to deploy resources more effectively.<BR/><BR/>Hope this gives some insight into the true nature of microstamping.<BR/><BR/>You can see more on the technology on www.microstamping.netAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com