Mike Quigley is proud of his new bill, it would seem. Here are some things it does:
- A second, hidden serial number on every gun, “This provision would require gun manufacturers to install additional, tamper-resistant serial numbers either inside the gun barrel or visible only in infrared light.”
Inside the barrel? Are you guys nuts? Do you know anything about gun design? I don’t know if you realize, but that’s the part that’s supposed to contain a violent explosion, and kind of has to be structurally pretty strong. It also wears out. After 20,000 rounds am I guilty of obliterating the serial number? Visible only using IR light? Do we have a type of steel that accomplishes this? This is a stupid idea.
- Maintaining background check records for 60 days.
Sorry, no. I know backdoor registration when I see it. Records are already maintained for people who are denied. That should be enough. If they are clear, you destroy the record immediately. This is not open for negotiation.
- Requiring gun dealers to perform inventory checks to report lost and stolen guns: The ATF reported that in 2007 it found 30,000 guns missing from dealer inventories based on its inspection of just fewer than 10 percent of gun dealers. If law-abiding dealers reported their inventories, the ATF would be much more effective at identifying and combating corrupt gun dealers.
Law abiding dealers already have to report their inventory upon ATF inspection. This is utterly useless and is designed only to make it harder to be in the gun business. The dealer’s A/D record should reflect current inventory. ATF declares a gun missing when A&D records don’t match actual inventory. This is essentially requiring dealers to keep inventory twice. All FFL holders are required to report lost and stolen guns. There’s already a form for that. Again, the answer is no.
Infrared light? Which is radiant heat. It would be so well hidden that it would show up if you left the gun in the sun.
“Law abiding dealers already have to report their inventory upon ATF inspection. This is utterly useless and is designed only to make it harder to be in the gun business.”
How often are dealers required to verify their inventory? Because I’ve never worked retail where they didn’t take at least a yearly inventory.
There’s no current requirement they do an actual count, but there is the requirement they keep track of what comes in and what goes out. What’s on your A/D record should reflect your inventory. If it doesn’t, you screwed up somewhere. Requiring periodic inventory isn’t going to make FFLs lose fewer guns.
If they only keep track of what goes in and comes out, then they have no feedback loop to tell them when something’s wrong (like an employee stealing from the shop). It’s an open loop system instead of a closed loop system.
I fail to see how taking an inventory yearly or twice a year isn’t going to help or be harmless. And it’s not especially difficult. Even if you’re doing everything by hand, you’re talking about something you can easily do in a night with a few people. Local gunshops aren’t that big and major stores will have invested in the sorts of electronic equipment that speeds up the process. Just make sure a sane inventory schedule (like yearly or twice yearly) is written into the law so the process can’t be abused.
How do you enforce the requirement?
Jeff:
I’d be willing to bet money that every dealer in the country verifies their inventory at least once a year, with no more than a dozen or so exceptions. Considering that ATF can come in at any time, with little to no warning, and could fine and/or shut them down for any discrepancy, it’s just good sense.
Plus, I’m pretty sure most retailers have to do an annual inventory anyway, for tax purposes – I know here in Virginia the value of a retailer’s inventory has to be reported on their taxes, and I assume most states do something similar.
“Infrared light? Which is radiant heat. It would be so well hidden that it would show up if you left the gun in the sun.”
Those idiots probably mean a UV light source, like how they check for counterfeit bills or for the presence of blood.
Quigley pretty clearly has been watching too many episodes of CSI.
Jeff said: Infrared light? Which is radiant heat. It would be so well hidden that it would show up if you left the gun in the sun.
Yes and no, in that order.
If it emits only in the infrared, you wouldn’t see it “in the sun” – because we still can’t see in the infrared range. You’d need an infrared camera/sensor.
(That said, I share Sebastian’s dubiousness of the practicality or likely possibility of a “hidden infrared serial”, or even a UV one – and doubly so in the barrel.
Would that make barrel replacement illegal? How about conversion kits? Would they need to be re-serialized?
This is a bad joke masquerading as a bill, but fortunately it should have roughly no chance to go anywhere.)
Impossible to meet requirements aren’t bugs, they’re features – at least as far as the anti-gun crowd is concerned.
The FBI already maintains a registry of all gun sales and FFL transfers. Illegally, but its OK since there the FBI…
“Considering that ATF can come in at any time, with little to no warning, and could fine and/or shut them down for any discrepancy, it’s just good sense.”
One of the things I’ve learned while working for the government is that if you discover a problem but don’t report it, you get in lots of trouble if/when they find out. If you discover a problem but do report it, you still get in trouble. If you don’t discover it and therefore don’t report it, you often get in no trouble for a very long time. If they’re going to shut you down for any discrepancy, then it behooves you to either makes sure no discrepancies happen or to not find any.
“Those idiots probably mean a UV light source, like how they check for counterfeit bills or for the presence of blood.”
“If it emits only in the infrared, you wouldn’t see it “in the sun†– because we still can’t see in the infrared range. You’d need an infrared camera/sensor.”
He says visible only in infrared light, not visible only within the infrared spectrum. It’s possible he meant something that flouresces or color changes in IR. And yes I think he just doesn’t know the difference between IR and UV.
“Plus, I’m pretty sure most retailers have to do an annual inventory anyway, for tax purposes – I know here in Virginia the value of a retailer’s inventory has to be reported on their taxes, and I assume most states do something similar.”
I would think so as well. Unless the law says they have to take an active inventory, it wouldn’t surprise me if some just kept track of what came in, subtracted what went out, and then called the rest “inventory.” Also, if they’re going to have to inventory once a year for tax purposes, why is an inventory requirement a problem? Redundant perhaps, but not a fundamental infringement.
The real issue is that he may try to get them to literally report their inventories (I have these guns with these serial numbers) instead of just document and report discrepancies.
Quigley is such a weasel. He says he is announcing his bill, HR 1642, on the anniversary of the Columbine shootings. He actually introduced the bill on April 15th – five days earlier.
All we have to go on as to what is in the bill is what he is announcing in his press release. The GPO has not published the text of the bill and Quigley isn’t putting it up on his website.
A sordid lot of politicians that have held his Congressional seat before him. Two have been convicted – Blagojevich and Rostenkowski – and another, Rahm Emanuel, is as slimey as they come. Quigley is doing his best to uphold the traditions of that Congressional district.
“He says visible only in infrared light, not visible only within the infrared spectrum. It’s possible he meant something that flouresces or color changes in IR. And yes I think he just doesn’t know the difference between IR and UV.”
Agreed, he probably means fluoresces when exposed to that spectrum, but I’d never heard of that with IR light. UV is commonly used for that in forensics though.
But as japete might say, “you guys are just focusing too much on the details, that’s not what they mean!”. Never mind that the bill would work as it’s read and interpreted, not what the writers intended it to mean.
Quigley wants to talk about guns; he does not want to talk about his murderous, criminal, gangbanger constituents. No surprise there. That’s typical of urban politicians. They don’t want to upset their urban constituents, who don’t much like us NRA types to begin with, and don’t mind seeing legislation aimed at us instead of at them. However, we’re not the ones running around the streets shooting at each other, so legislation aimed at us will accomplish nothing.
Look at COBIS in New York for an example of the failure that results from focusing on law-abiding gun owners.
We need an efficient death penalty for gangbangers who kill – it has a remarkably low recidivism rate.
The bill text is up. Apparently it’s called the “Trafficking Reduction And Criminal Enforcement (TRACE) Act”. Sigh.
It really does say “inside the barrel” or “visible only in infrared light”. We truly are ruled by morons.