A week ago or so my niece’s boyfriend got shot. He will recover, but it is still made me think long and hard about what to do about gun control.
Jacob Zuma has asked SAPS to come up with a plan, so why don’t we help out and come up with some ideas.
Here is one of my suggestions, one because I have a much more drastic idea I will write about another day.
Idea
My idea is simple: Why don’t we give bullets a serial number?
A conventional piece of gun ammunition contains a bullet and a casing where the gun powder is housed. The casing wraps around the bullets back end. The idea is to place an engraved serial number in the “foot” – the back-end of the bullet. The serial number cannot be filed of or otherwise erased without breaking the ammunition. The back-end of the bullet is also the part that normally survives any impact, and the bullet is the weapon that will be left at a crime scene. Check out the image.
While we are add it, we are also going to engrave the same serial number on the inside wall of the casing. Same recipe as per above: It cannot be erased without dismantling the ammunition. The casing will normally be left at a crime scene when fired of with a pistol, while a revolver will retain the casing. But it can still assist in many cases.
Administration
Whenever a gun owner wants to purchase ammunition he has to show his gun license, and at that time the gun shop will enter into a website administrated by the SAPS, the gun license and the serial numbers of the ammunition. Then whenever a crime scene involves gun ammunition the police can look up the owner of the retrieved bullets on this website.
The SA Government will sponsor the website, but the gun ammunition manufacturers must carry the cost to actually add serial numbers to the bullets.
The distributor/ammunition manufacturers must ensure at each delivery of more ammunition to the gun shop that either the ammunition has been registered to a specific owner on the website or the ammunition is still on the shelf in the shop.
Penalties
If the ammunition is found at a crime scene, the owner of the ammunition will face same penalties as the actual criminal individual, independent of the fact that the owner actually fired the ammunition himself, or it was stolen from him. Even if the gun owner has reported the ammunition stolen. Yes, that is a very dramatic part of the whole equation, but this is here where wheels normally falls off.
We can only assure a less violent crime stricken South Africa if we all take responsibility for the weapons on the street. If a gun owner don’t like this option, well, then he has the option to not own a gun. The number of non-lethal type of weapons in existence allows everybody to have an alternative to a gun.
This goes for everyone, hunters, police, military. This is the only way that accountability is achieved for those who wants to carry arms.
Other thoughts
In the case of my niece’s boyfriend, the bullet still hasn’t been retrieved. The doctors are nervous of the trauma it will inflict, if they take it out now, and hope it will surface it self a bit more, before they remove it. Therefore I believe that together with the engraved serial number the bullet should contain a small RFID (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rfid) inside near the bottom of the bullet, then one can scan the ID of the bullet without having to forcefully retrieve it. RFID technology might be so robust that it will render the engraved serial number obsolete.
The administration of these serial number has to be foolproof. So when a shopowner reports the purchased ammunition on the website, the gun owner also has to approve the purchase. Both the gun shop owner and the gun owner has to use a fingerprint scanner together with a PIN code to register the purchase.
I also think that a serial number on a gun should be more sustainable, maybe by embed a RFID inside some major part of the gun.
Reloaders, peoble who legally make their own ammunition, still purchase bullet and casing seperately, they just assemply their own ammunition. These individuals will purchase their parts with the serial number engraved. And they will still be equeally accountable.
A widely discussed alternative, is to have the gun modified, so that the firing pin stamps the guns’s serial number on any ammunition. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearm_microstamping
I still believe that the risk of these firearms being modified to NOT do a stamp, is to high.
Other worlds
In Arizona, USA they have invoked such rule:
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:
Section 1. Title 41, chapter 12, article 5, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 41-1772, to read:
START_STATUTE41-1772. Ammunition coding system database; sale of ammunition; tax; fund; civil penalty; violation; classification; definitionBeginning january 1, 2009, a manufacturer shall code all handgun and ASSAULT weapon AMMUNITION that is manufactured or sold in this state. This section applies to all calibers.
Beginning january 1, 2011, a private citizen or a retail vendor shall dispose of all noncoded AMMUNITION that is owned or held by the citizen or vendor.
The department shall establish and maintain an ammunition coding system database containing a manufacturer registry and a vendor registry.
A manufacturer shall:1. Register with the department in a manner prescribed by the department by rule.2. Maintain records on the business premises for at least seven years concerning all sales, loans and transfers of ammunition to, from or within this state.
3. Encode ammunition provided for retail sale for regulated firearms in a manner that the director establishes so that:
(a) The base of the bullet and the inside of the cartridge casing of each round in a box of ammunition are coded with the same serial number.
(b) Each serial number is engraved in such a manner that it is highly likely to permit identification after ammunition discharge and bullet impact.
(c) The outside of each box of ammunition is labeled with the name of the manufacturer and the same serial number used on the cartridge casings and bases of bullets contained in the box.
4. Pay the tax levied by subsection I of this section.
A manufacturer shall not label ammunition contained in one ammunition box with the same serial number as the ammunition contained in another ammunition box that is produced by the same manufacturer.
A vendor shall:
1. Register with the department in a manner prescribed by the department by rule.
2. Record the following information in a format prescribed by the department:
(a) The date of the transaction.
(b) The name of the purchaser.
(c) The purchaser’s driver license number or other government issued identification card number.
(d) The date of birth of the purchaser.
(e) the unique identifier of all handgun ammunition or bullets transferred.
(f) All other information prescribed by the department.
3. Maintain records on the business premises for at least three years after the date of the recorded purchase.
The department shall establish the ammunition coding system database within the framework of any existing firearms databases.
Access to information in the ammunition coding system database is reserved for law enforcement personnel. The department shall only release information in connection with a criminal investigation.
A tax of one-half cent is levied on each bullet or round of ammunition that is sold in this state. The department of revenue shall collect the tax and deposit the tax, pursuant to sections 35-146 and 35-147, in the coded ammunition fund established by subsection J of this section.
The coded ammunition fund is established consisting of monies deposited pursuant to subsection I of this section. The department shall administer the fund. Subject to legislative appropriation, monies in the fund shall be used for the purpose of establishing and maintaining the ammunition coding system database prescribed by this section.
A manufacturer that fails to comply with this section is subject to a civil penalty of not more than one THOUSAND dollars for the first violation, not more than five thousand dollars for a second violation and not more than ten thousand dollars for any subsequent violation.
A vendor who knowingly fails to comply with this section or who knowingly falsifies the records REQUIRED to be kept by this section is guilty of a class 3 misdemeanor.
A person who knowingly destroys, obliterates or otherwise renders unreadable the coding REQUIRED by this section is guilty of a class 3 misdemeanor.
For the purposes of this section, “code or coded” means a unique identifier that has been APPLIED by etching onto the base of a bullet or ammunition projectile.
Further reading:
Ammunition Accountability Act: http://www.factcheck.org/2009/01/ammunition-accountability-act/
Serial Number of Ammunition in The state of Georgia, USA: http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/fulltext/sb12.htm
