"Hi, is this Mr. Bill Johnson, of 149 Elmwood Drive in Albany?"
"Yes it is. Who's this?"
"This is Detective Schifferbreins with the Boston Police Department. We recovered some shell casings at the scene of our city's latest homicide, and we traced them back to the Smith & Wesson .45-caliber handgun you reported stolen five years ago."
"Wow, that's amazing!"
"I know. It's this great new microstamping technology that made it all possible."
"So...you were able to catch the bastard who broke into my house, raped my wife, and stole my guns while I was out of town?"
"Well, um...not exactly."
"Oh. Well, did you catch the shooter from the homicide you're investigating?"
"Um...not exactly."
"But, you have a good idea who it was, right?"
"Um..not exactly"
"Oh. Well, did you recover the gun?"
"Um...not exactly."
"Oh. Well, when you do, can I have it back?"
"What are you, retarded?"
The marvels of microstamping. Old, but sadly still relevant from Bruce.
3 comments:
The real conversation:
BOSTON: "Hi, is this Mr. Bill Johnson, of 149 Elmwood Drive in Albany?"
ALBANY: "Yes it is. Who's this?"
BOSTON: "This is Detective Schifferbreins with the Boston Police Department. We recovered some shell casings at the scene of our city's latest homicide, and we traced them back to the Smith & Wesson .45-caliber handgun you reported stolen five years ago."
ALBANY: "Wow, that's amazing!"
BOSTON: "I know. It's this great new microstamping technology that made it all possible. What many people don't understand is that it is very helpful on tagreting illegal trafficking on the supply side."
ALBANY: "So...you were able to catch the bastard who broke into my house, raped my wife, and stole my guns while I was out of town?"
BOSTON: "Well, um...not exactly, I am sorry for the tragedy your family had to endure. I am sorry to say, that is not why I am calling you."
BOSTON: "We have had a number of such casings from various firearms in Boston. From the trace data it shows that a good number of them come from the Albany area. And a small concentration of thefts directly in your area. We have figured out that there might be a crinimal theft ring operating in your area. First, you reported that you firearm was stolen, did they steal anything else? The reason we are asking is that it has been determined that you might have been targeted as a gun owner, by the criminals own survielance. The criminals are staking out firearm stores and firing ranges and folloiwng people to their homes to specifically steal firearms. this type of technique has shown up on the west coast.", "based on the number of firearms stolen, it seems that the theft ring is still operational in your area."
BOSTON: "There are no guarantees, but if we do identify the players and known associates, we might be able to run their backgrounds, since a majority of these types have a criminal background. If DNA evidence was collected in your wifes attack, we might be able to match it against these criminals. Our goal is to stop the flow of illegal firearms, however we will follow all leads that allow us to bring such criminals to justice."
ALBANY: "Oh. Really? they are still operating here?
BOSTON: "Yes. Criminals who deal in illegal firearms trafficking are creatures of habit. We call this type of activity a pattern crime. Just like drug distribution, once the firearm sources and trafficking channels are established, they do not change unless the trafficking pattern is identified and disrupted"
ALBANY: "But, you have a good idea who it was, right?"
BOSTON: "Um..not exactly, however, we do have a group of indivduals and one that we caught in Boston who has a group of known assocaites in Albany, operating in your area. We will galdly share our data with the local investigators and as I stated we will run whatever evidence against the persons of interest. If there is a amtch, that would give us some insight into the network", "Over the last five years we have begun to integrate drug trafficking data and firearm trafficking data together, since drugs and firearms tend to use the same distribution and trafficking routes."
ALBANY: "Oh. Well, did you recover the gun?"
BOSTON: "Um...not exactly. Typically firearms are never recovered at a scene of a violent crime. Our goal is to identify as quick as possible the traffikcing routes and patterns used by criminal enterprises. That allows us to pin point our resources and identify the source of firearms and break up to the criminal networks. The key is to close the sources and to identify people who are known to traffic in firearms so that a sting operation can be implemented to pull down the network and serverely disrupt the group."
ALBANY: "Oh. isn't that a waste of time?
BOSTON: "What are you, retarded?", This is how the government has stopped terrorist threats to the country since September 11, 2001. We track various forms of information, from various databases and integrate the info to find patterns and then apply resources to disrupt or to target those patterns."
ALBANY: "I still think microstamping is not worth it!!"
BOSTON: "Well, Colt testified in CT not to long back and said it has implemnted Radio Frequency ID technology to track firearms from their facilities to the battlefield in Iraq. As a gun owner myself I would rather have a passive mechanical ID method, than RFID tags which is an intrusive technology".
ALBANY: "Radio frequency what???"
BOSTON: "RFID, it is electronic tag that they use for military firearms to track them enroute in shipping and in the battlefield. That is what is going to come down the road in the commerical US marketplace. It seemed Colt has the system completely integrated for the US government - it is hard to say they can't do it in the US marektplace, if they took money from the government to and sucessfully implemented in the military."
BOSTON: "Imagine walking into a store and the RFID detector on your concealed firearm is detected - YOU HAVE ENTERED A GUN FREE ZONE< PLEASE LEAVE OUR STORE>> THIS IS PRIVATE PROPERTY AND WE DO NOT ALLOW FIREARMS - just like what happens when you walk out of a store and they don't turn of the RFID antitheft devices"
ALBANY: "That will never happen, that is violation of our privacy and 2nd amendment rights!!!"
BOSTON: "Do you own an EASY PASS?"
ALBANY: "Um .... yup."
BOSTON: "So, you are not that worried about your privacy?", "You have a NY state drivers license as well I bet?"
ALBANY: "Um .... Yup?"
BOSTON: "Well, that's two RFID tags you own or will own shortly, but you must have protested that in Albany when they decided to us RFId and Easy Pass on the highway right?"
ALBANY: "Um .... Nope", " Wait did you say There's an RFID in the drivers license?"
BOSTON: "You better start getting invled in your state politics", "You have a passport? Guess what - RFID"
BOSTON: "Microstamping is a passive mechanical tool mark in a firearm - not an electronic tag. But, it could be a valuable source for us to track down those who steal or straw purchase firearms for the illegal firearms market. It aloows us to target the supply side."
As a side note, if we use microstamping there is no need for ammo serialization, RFID tags, RBID (MD), CoBIS (NY) or registration of gun owners.
"...if we use microstamping there is no need for ammo serialization, RFID tags..."
That assumes there's a "need" for those other things, or a need for any of these things.
Ballistic fingerprinting is as effective a crime prevention tool as rape crisis counselors are at stopping rape.
Both come into play only AFTER the violent offense has taken place.
Gang members and street criminals aren't going to be deterred one iota by the treat of their shell casings being traced back to the original owner of the gun.
I'd wager most crime guns change hands faster than Pam Anderson changes rockstar boyfriends.
I'll also wager that over 90% of those criminals who are caught illegally using/carrying stolen firearms already have a rap sheet longer than my arm, and instead of committing crimes, would have still been rotting in prison had the last judge they faced not been so "compassionate" toward the poor, misunderstood child standing before them in leg irons.
Also, anyone who thinks our government is capable of effectively maintaining and controlling such a ballistic database has not been paying attention.
The only ones who actually think this plan will work are those politicians who want to make private gun ownership a thing of the past and those folks who will be making all the money selling this technology.
It's much like Communism. On paper, what's not to love? In reality, unmitigated disaster.
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