A dozen House Democrats are backing a measure mandating pistols sold by licensed dealers be capable of stamping a code on their ammunition at firing.
Introduced as the Make Identifiable Criminal Rounds Obvious (MICRO) Act last month, the proposal would strip the ability of federal firearms licensees to sell pistols that do not carry the controversial microstamping technology. Backers argue that as much as 40 percent of murders go unsolved due to lack of evidence, which the bill is meant to address.
“We must do everything we can to ensure gun violence can be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said the bill’s author, U.S. Rep. Anthony Brown, D-Md., in a statement. “Microstamping offers law enforcement the chance to track bullet casings to the source of the crime, and is one more step we can take to ensure the safety of the American people.”
Brown’s measure, entered as HR 3458, prohibits FFLs from manufacturing, selling, or transferring semi-auto handguns, unless they are capable of microstamping ammunition. Though California adopted a microstamping requirement as part of their 2007 unsafe handgun modification requirements, implementation was delayed until 2013 when California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced the technology had passed hurdles that kept it from being viable.
by Chris Eger