Year: 2008

Here’s more duplicity by Ammunition Coding Systems that was brought up on Cam Edward’s show last night.   See the patent for Ammunition Coding, filed by Russell H. Ford:

In general, no governmental agency would be required to supervise the test cartridge firing, and to retain the information in a central repository, or data base. Instead, ammunition having an identifying mark could be conveniently tracked through a chain of supply in a manner similar to ordinary inventory tracking, so that the costs associated with tracking the ownership of the marked ammunition are widely distributed. Furthermore, since the burden associated with identification of the firearm is effectively shifted from the firearm to the ammunition, the identity of a firearm owner or user may be determined without regard to the age of the firearm, so that all firearms currently in existence could be traced.

Emphasis mine.  That last part seems like a pot shot at the microstamping technology, which carries a chief weakness of not applying older firearms.  But this isn’t the duplicity; that is in the first part I bolded.  Take a look at their model legislation (PDF) that’s being pushed on their web site:

Section 4. Authority to establish an Ammunition Coding Database.

1. [AGENCY] shall be responsible for establishing and maintaining an Ammunition Coding  Database (ACD) containing the following information

What kind of information will this database contain?

a. The date of the transaction.
b. The name of the transferee.
c. The purchaser’s driver’s 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 [AGENCY].

It’s basically complete ammunition regulation, down to the last bullet.  No more handloading either, the model legislation outlaws it:

No later than January 1, 2011, all non-coded ammunition for the calibers listed in this chapter, whether owned by private citizens or retail outlets, must be disposed.

You can have my reloading press when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

There is a bill that’s been introduced in Pennsylvania to implement Ammunition Accountability that we talked about last night.  It’s HB 2228.  I haven’t talked about this yet, because it’s still in committee, and not much of a threat at this moment, but that could change any minute.

The lobbying firm that runs the Ammunition Accountability web site is Gordon Thomas Honeywell, presumably their Governmental Affairs Group.  You will notice that they list ACS as a client.  Important to note that until recently Gordon Thomas Honeywell Governmental Affairs was known as Smith Alling Lane Government Affairs.

Tim Shellberg, who is President of GTH Government Affairs has several times donated to the campaign of  Washington State Representative Allister O’Brien, who is the lead sponsor of the Washington Ammunition encoding bill.  I also notice that Gun Owners Action League of Washington has donated quite a bit to his campaign as well.  Not enough it would seem.  O’Brien failed to win an endorsement from NRA last election.

And to think, Russell Ford said on Cam’s show he wants this whole thing to be as transparent as possible.  Transparent as in we hire a lobbying firm to anonymously set up a web site to push for model legislation, and to lobby key legislators that have been quietly bought off, in order to be able to skim off the top of every one of the eight billion rounds of ammunition produced each year.  You have to admit, that’s quite an ingenious scam, that would make even the most talented con artist jealous.  And it’s all legal.

Be sure to tune into Cam’s show at NRANews.com or on Sirius Patriot 144, Thursday at 10PM to hear the re-broadcast of the interview with this worm.

The web site Ammunition Accountability apparently is administered by the lobbying firm of Ammunition Coding Systems, who ultimately pays for the site, and who conveniently produces the system that does this type of encoding.  I just heard Russ Ford of ACS admitting to this on Cam Edwards’ show.

There’s a per round royalty their company plans to charge for this. Nothing like succeeding in the marketplace by having the .gov force your product on the consumer, whether they want it or not.  Seriously, these guys are hoping to get state legislatures to basically pass a tax on ammunition that gets passed on to them.

UPDATE: Cam comments that the interview with Russ Ford will be re-aired on Thursday.  You can tune in at NRANews.com.  I would highly recommend folks tune in.