From the Sarasota Herald Tribune, we find at least some of the secret recommendations. Yes, that’s right, MAIG isn’t nailing his 40 Theses up to any door, though we are trying to locate them. Let’s look at a few of them:
Greater funding for ATF. The bureau “lacks resources to effectively police gun trafficking across state and national borders,” according to The Washington Post’s report on the coalition recommendations. ATF also has too few inspectors.
Help pass ATF reform and we’ll talk. I’m not opposed to more money for ATF’s inspection arm, but they need to be nailing dealers for truly bad stuff, and not for crap like forgetting to put county in the right box, or failing to put a “Yes” instead of a “Y”.
More aggressive federal prosecution of violations, including those by people who fail the gun background check.
Of violent felons to fail the background check, fine. Of a guy who had a fight with pop when he was twenty, and didn’t realize that was a disabling conviction until he failed the background check? No. Not everyone who is prohibited from owning a gun is a hardened criminal, and not everyone who fails the background check will serve any public safety interest by taking up space in a federal prison that could be taken up by actual criminals.
Tightening oversight of gun shows, especially those whose weapons later turn up in crimes.
As long as that oversight doesn’t look like this. Competence on the part of ATF brass is a problem. It’s not just a matter of funding or attention.
More thorough tracing of seized weapons, and better sharing of that information with state and local law agencies.
Except that ATF and the FOP are opposed to this.
A new policy of stamping guns with a second, hidden serial number. This could help thwart the common practice of removing serial numbers on stolen guns.
Because criminals won’t learn where the hidden serial numbers are? How are you going to get them on there? There’s only so many ways to hide a serial number on the serial numbered part. Surely you don’t mean putting serial numbers on parts that can be replaced, right? Â I can still fix my gun without being guilty of obliterating a serial number, right? This was written by someone who doesn’t know much about guns, or how serial numbers are regulated.
This is just five recommendations though. What do the other 35 look like? We’ll try to find out, so stay tuned.
They’ll have a brilliant idea and hide this secret number under the grips!
Just make it illegal to tamper/replace the grips. D’uh!
I thought they didn’t want any new laws…just enforcement of the existing ones?
A “double secret probation” serial number certainly sounds like a new law to me.
Tightening oversight of gun shows, especially those whose weapons later turn up in crimes.
How will they know when a firearm is sold at a gun show unless every purchase has to go through a dealer?
Again, a new law?
That’s the problem, really. Not all guns have grips. Frame parts that exist on one gun won’t exist on another. Put it in the magazine well? Probably can do, but you have to make sure it doesn’t wear. And what do you do about single shot rifles or a break action shotgun? Where on a revolver can you easily hide a serial number where it won’t get damaged?
They list what new laws they support on their web site. Oddly enough they never mention this to the media, but the media doesn’t bother looking, and even if they did, they wouldn’t understand enough to make any sense of it.
We should all contact our reps and senators (if pro-gun) and request copies from them.
For a while, I was thinking of getting some personalized engraving on my guns, in a hidden area. But I realized, that if the engraver couldn’t get to it, neither could the manufacturer. And anyplace an engraver can get to, so can I, or any other person, to remove this marking.
There could be ways to do it inside the gun (besides microstamping)
I see the recovery of obliterated serial numbers on “CSI Miami” all the time! The crackerjack team of investigators just dribble some special sauce on the scratched-out numbers (on a desktop, not in a fume hood) and without rinsing the liquid off, or waiting for etching to take place, they look at the gun under their low power microscopes and – voila – the serial number is recovered.
This second, secret serial number is obviously a solution in search of a problem. Even TV forensic investigators don’t have a problem with serial number recovery. And my Glock already has 3 major parts with a serial number: the frame and the barrel and the slide. What more do they want, another one on the slide spring, and one on the firing pin that I have never taken apart to clean?
Actually, I saw a legitimate article a few years back that showd how ATF could get the obliterated serial # through x-rays or so.e other spectroscopic method.
They seem to be getting the hidden serial number idea from the automotive world. I think most cars do have “hidden VIN.” I don’t think its mandated by law, nor is it truly hidden. Most manufacturers just don’t release it to the general public. Problem is, a car is a lot bigger than a gun. These guys either haven’t thought through the technical difficulties,or are just hoping the general public doesn’t know any better. I’d go with the latter.