Most politicians learned a few years ago that talking gun control is a political loser. So, to fill the vacuum they're talking bullet control.
Sen. Reginald Tate (D-Memphis) and Rep. Larry J. Miller (D-Memphis) have introduced legislation that would require all handgun and assault weapon ammunition sold in Tennessee after Jan. 1, 2009, to be coded. The idea, they spell out in their identical bills, is coded bullets would help police solve homicides committed with handguns/assault weapons.
If the bills become law, many boxes of bullets - which types/calibers are covered and which ones aren't isn't spelled out - would be registered with the TBI. Buy a box of bullets and the date of the transaction, the buyer's drivers license number and other information is kept in a file. When some unfortunate soul gets shot, the bullet is dug out and - Presto! - the buyer is hauled off to the hoosegow.
Just hope you don't lose your coded bullets, let a buddy borrow them or allow a burglar to steal them or - Presto! - you're the one being hauled off.
Oh, and what about all that uncoded ammunition people own? No problem, the bill states: "No later than Jan. 1, 2011, all non-coded ammunition for the calibers listed in this act, whether owned by private citizens or retail outlets, shall be disposed."
Neither Senate Bill 3395 nor House Bill 3245 say if Tate and Miller are going to be doing the door-to-door searches for uncoded ammo themselves.
Are there other problems with the legislation? Maybe a couple.
One would be defining what is and what isn't an assault weapon. Under some definitions, rifles commonly used by deer hunters are transformed into assault weapons, so if you like to by ammo in bulk, you'd better start shooting it now.
And does anybody really think people who will commit murder on a whim are going to worry about keeping ammunition that's not coded?
Murderous scum one: "OK boys, we've stashed the heroin in the basement, fired up the meth lab out back and buried the two guys we blew away Tuesday. Anything else?"
Murderous scum two: "Yeah boss, we've still got two boxes of uncoded ammunition in the kitchen and it's Jan. 2, 2011."
Murderous scum one: "Dang!"
But maybe the bigger problem is the technology it takes to code ammunition doesn't exist.
Well, maybe Miller and Tate are just visionaries, seeing the future. Or maybe not.
Do a Google search on "coded bullets" and you can find that the same piece of legislation has been introduced in Hawaii, Mississippi, New York and maybe some other states. In some cases the bills are the same as those of Miller and Tate almost word-for-word.
Each of the bills says 30 percent of all homicides involving guns go unsolved. Each of the bills says 80 percent of all ammunition sold in the United States is handgun ammunition.
I don't know about the homicides, but nobody in the ammo-selling business says 80 percent of their sales are for handguns.
Folks in Nashville give the bills no chance of getting off the ground. But it's like the old adage about the camel sticking its nose in the tent: It's best to stop it while all you have to worry about is a nose and not a whole camel.
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/feb/1 ... eir-flaws/
