Microstamping, Newtown and Riverview Gun Sales: What should have taken place long before Sandy Hook: Part II

I hope that you enjoyed Part I of the series "Microstamping, Newtown and Riverview Gun Sales: What should have taken place long before Sandy Hook"

We've had an opportunity to cover the details of this not-so-new Microstamping technology and how it places Gunsense advocates on the right side of their desires. Microstamping has nothing to do with Progun propaganda accusations of gun grabbing. If you haven't read it, and you are an advocate of Gunsense, I encourage you to do so.

Microstamping, Newtown and Riverview Gun Sales: What should have taken place long before Sandy Hook: Part I

1) It encourages responsible gun ownership
2) It reduces the likelihood of straw purchases taking place, based on point-of-origin sales information.
3) It is not readily defeatable with common household items, such as a "file" or "emery cloth"
4) Using an electron microscope (SEM Microscopy), which is used in Cycle-Of-Fire Ballistics analysis, micro-serial number legibility is decipherable to 96.8%
5) Micro-serializing is not a NEW technology. Smith&Wesson have been applying it to their guns for years, so complaining about the undue expense is a red herring.
6) Built in Microstamping redundancies insure tampering with guns manufactured with Microstamping cannot be circumvented; leading to (a) more closed gun crime cases, and (b)  reduction in the most common types of gun trafficking, dealer to "straw purchaser" to felon.
7) Gun Show Loopholes, where private party transactions are legal, can escape point-of-origin sales. With the advent of Microstamping, as a manufacturing process and implemented Safety Law, this is no longer true.

Moving right along,--last night I thought I'd turn in early.

Research is a large part of my writing and can be tedious and time consuming, but well worth it. I read a lot. I thought I'd step away from the subject of Newtown and rest my weary mind about this subject for a moment by catching up on some older Time Magazine issues before turning in. November 11th, 2013 had a great cover story called "The Secret Web" AKA THE DEEP WEB, all about Silk Road and Ross Ulbricht, bitcoins, dark markets, back room dealings...and wouldn't you know it?

LightBox-"From the Rubble"

A photograph from Jessica Hill of the Associated Press.

I don't need to discuss the caption. I don't need to repeat what was said, because we've seen the media take hold of this incident and do what they please with it. What I want to do, is just look at this photo.

I want to look at this image and realize what happened. I want to look at it and know that even though the buildings have been razed and will be eventually replaced, that this event in no way removes what happened that fateful day, and what needs to be done now. Taking away the buildings does not take away the act--that did not have to happen, for any number of reasons. Reasons that are not discussed, because each and every day we are talking about a new school shooting. Because we've let ourselves become emotional with reasons that have removed our effective protest in favor of much needed change in gun laws.

Why is destruction Sandy Hook so important?

For the same reason we had to raze these buildings.

To remove the impact of what took place here.

To forget.

For if we had to raze the buildings everywhere a mass shooting took place in America, then the blank spots of real estate in America would become apparent to anyone who passed by them.

Death of children, young people and adults, by gunfire,--wouldn't become so benign.

We need to do what is possible so more gun violence will cease, and that which IS possible is a process.

So, we take this event, and deconstruct what took place.

We don't flinch, for those of us who can stand to look at what actually happened.

We learn from this incident all that happened and use it so it never happens again.  

We take what works, like Microstamping and implement it in ALL states.

The American Bar Association approved of it on a national level in 2010, so why shouldn't we all do the same as well?

One thing that Gunsense people need to realize is that ALL gun crime investigations begin at Point-Of-Sale origin. That means, manufacturer/to distributor-dealer /to consumer. There is no time lost on investigations with the invention of Microstamping. Time is a critical factor. No digging through hundreds, thousands, millions of 4473's to find the original buyer of a gun. Why, Microstamping can even trace people who are illegally reselling weapons for profit, based on patterns of buying and reselling.

The average profit on a illegally trafficked, straw purchased handgun is $500.

That's right, $500![1]

In some cases, much much more. Steven Greenoe is a perfect example of someone who was caught based on buying patterns. 

So anyone can see why Progun wants to shut down the conversation about Microstamping. So many young men out there are making a financial killing in a market place, where Private Party transactions are "legal", but seldom monitored for compliance. Now we have Facebook Guns for Sale[2], which increases the probability of guns ending up in the wrong hands, based on illegal transfers taking place. Almost 200,000 "likes" is assuring us a illegal transfer waiting to happen.

 
Even Craigslist won't take that risk.

Still within the legal gun selling industry,--certain illegalities take place.

Microstamping can help smooth out these problems.

That's what this series is about.

Is it even remotely possible that Microstamping could have prevented Sandy Hook?

After my research on the subject, it is my firm belief that it could have not only prevented Sandy Hook, but had Microstamping been implemented prior to the incident, it might have created a totally different turn of events. The legislation was in place in Connecticut to implement Microstamping.

S.B. 353 Session Year 2009, AN ACT CONCERNING THE MICROSTAMPING OF SEMIAUTOMATIC PISTOLS. To facilitate the linking of used cartridge cases to the firearm that fired them by requiring the microstamping of semiautomatic pistols.[3]

I do realize that a Bushmaster AR-15 was also used in the crime in question, but the story of Sandy Hook is karmically tied to S.B. 353. Maybe if people paid more attention to upcoming legislation that benefits them in general, then maybe--just maybe, tragedies like Sandy Hook could be thwarted before they even have a chance to take place. We can easily lose focus IF we don't take advantage of what is laid before us as a tool to receive what we need in our lifetime.

There is no doubt that Adam Lanza was a troubled child, with a troubled history in life, along with his mother Nancy. These problems presented themselves early on, in his childhood development and as little as they are discussed, the reasons for the Sandy Hook tragedy are many. None of them outweigh another. Now, what do we do with this information, and how do we respond to these mistakes previously made by all, while still showing our courage of conviction, where things that may present future problems can no longer be ignored?

We just do.
We don't whine about it.
We don't ignore them.
We don't shy away from it.
We dig in deep.

I don't,-- and never have considered, "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun", as a viable or even reasonable answer to these problems. I don't consider Open Carry as a reasonable or viable option in when it comes to these problems. So what do I consider viable options and answers to gun violence in America? When we consider the course that history presents a viable technology that helps reduce illegal, criminal behavior, then that technology should be placed at the forefront of the gun safety discussion.

The NRA says: "Trained people" who own guns will prevent and reduce crime,...

I disagree.

Training did not prevent the death of Nancy Lanza.

26 other lives were not protected by Nancy Lanza's NRA pistol training.

She actually made first contact with the perpetrator of the crime in question.

The criminal was her son, who she raised in an environment of guns and violence.

An environment where a Colt .380 Pocket Lite is used as a teething tool for her child. An environment where 30 rd AK-47 magazines are fully loaded, in the open, sitting in an unsecured rifle and handgun rack--long before she placed a unsecured gun cabinet in Adam's room.

An environment, where her lackadaisical attitude about guns and gun safety permeated their entire "environment". She played the same game a lot of parents play with their children's lives, when it comes to securing dangerous weapons. She hoped for the best and really never considered the worse that could happen, or the consequences of her inaction.

Aspergers is not a mental illness.

Access to firearms and ammunition, and an obsession with mass murder was Adam Lanza's problem.

Adam suffered from extreme OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). 

It was something that his mother obviously ignored and the consequences of her actions showed that.

Those comments were not a segue.

She trained her child to kill. He grew into a killer. No matter how you slice it. That was the environment he was raised in by her, and his behavior was hard to monitor based on her lackadaisical attitude towards guns and violence in general. Somewhere along the way, she lost her skills to nurture, and seems she never learned those basic survival skills she so badly sought.

Like how to assess a threat. 

After reading the Final report on the Shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School[4], juxtaposed against the The National School Shield: The Report of the National School Shield Task Force[5], I was left confused, as to why future considerations of Microstamping were never mentioned in either report, as a feasible preventative measure to curtail gun violence. In some ways, the shutdown of valid gun studies by the NRA, made the Sandy Hook incident possible.[6][7]

No PAC or Super PAC, passing themselves off as as a "educational" organization, geared to "Protect and Defend the Constitution" in its mission statement, has the right to usurp laws which are based in key foundational principles, found in the Preamble of the Constitution. That Preamble which guarantees the people of this nation that it will "insure domestic Tranquility". Let me repeat that. Insure domestic tranquility. It does not mention by what means it will do so, and comes far before the mention of the 2nd Amendment, which continues to be misinterpreted by the Moron Labe persuasion of America.

In the research paper, Gun Control After Heller: Threats and Sideshows From A Social Welfare Perspective[8], there is mention of exactly what you'll witness everyday as you participate on the #Gunsense thread on twitter,-- as you try to take a chance, making your best efforts to communicate with others about making changes in society for the betterment of mankind. Misinterpretations of a 2008 Supreme Court Judicial decision has caused prominent problems within current American society. The onslaught of Open Carry participants and their demands to display firearms on a daily basis, in every walk of life, has grown beyond reason. The negative social implications,-- of allowing America to become a martial society,-- then eventually becoming a militaristic society, are staggering, and day by day are becoming highly probable.   

1) Your safety from gun violence grows weaker everyday, and your life is being put at risk, based on your lack of access to pertinent information about gun violence in America. This lack of information is caused by those groups who threaten your safety through frivolous and vexatious litigation, misinformation campaigns, and political corruptness.

2) Innovation in technology, where guns and gun violence are concerned, is stifled by a constant re-quoting of the 2nd Amendment, falsely representing it as a 'purist doctrine', sacred beyond the need for science or regulations,-- by a growing Constitutionalist movement that is veering this nation out of control and into dangerous territory.

3) Massive amounts of Tort Litigation, backing up the courts and boggling the mind with nonsense that has little to do with Constitutional rights or Gun Trace technology, and is the main directive of ALEC's agenda to disrupt society, throwing it into chaos. Stand Your Ground laws create chaos, and along with chaos there is money to be made by these Progun groups. Massive amount of money that do nothing to institute gun safety of regulation. ALEC, in a nutshell believes in deregulation, including gun regulation. 

There is literally a ton on information out there about how gun violence can be reduced, significantly, without the need to ban firearms. Yet, by Progun blocking this pertinent information, under the guise of protecting the 2nd Amendment, these self-preservationist who tout that "any type of gun registration-leads-to-genocide-by-FEMA-death-camps" diatribe,--while actual industrial technology has made it possible to trace weapons to their source of manufacturing and distribution without a GUN! An ejected shell is all that is required.

How about that?

A win-win for everyone, and Progun continues to cry about technology that keeps them out of the line of fire when it comes to confiscation,--if they play by the rules,--have nothing to hide,--and don't do anything illegal in the transferring of firearms. For so-called "law abiding" citizens, this should be no problem at all or conflict of interest. Correct? Wrong (in Progun's viewpoint)! So, how deep seated is NRA paranoia (which I hear is the best, low-priced, paranoia on the market), that has kept the United States from progressing forward. From a standpoint that includes both safety and technology, their reasoning is beyond me.

Let me tell you why.

Jobs.
Technology.
Jobs.
Exporting items that reduce crime internationally.
Jobs.

Because guns are not going to go away anytime soon, that does not mean that they are reduced to technological retardation based on Progun's need to believe in the fallacy that the "gun grabber" exists. In this market place, and in society-at-large, where Progun is creating irresponsible and fearful consumers,--it is in this highly technological, advanced, GLOBAL society,-- that someone will exploit this technology which already exists. 

If America and Americans do not get on board with Microstamping technology, another technologically advanced nation will get on board, and we as a nation will eventually be subjected to another nation's advancements and inventions (once again) of our own core creation. No free market American will ever have a right to complain about outsourcing, but their audacity won't stop them from doing so when this technology finds itself outsourced to different nations beyond American borders.

Let me explain this another way. When the NRA and its cronies decided that Dr. Arthur L. Kellermann was a "anti-gun Nazi", would they apply that same logic today, seeing that he was named the Dean of U.S. Military Medical School?[9]  

The same Dr. Arthur L. Kellermann whose CDC research was the flashpoint for the 1993 gun control debate, that was used to defund gun studies via the CDC until recently?[10] Would they like him to keep his precious and invaluable gun shot trauma studies secrets, so our troops are at further risk while defending our nation? Come on NRA! Make up you mind! Defend the nation and support the troops, and retract your false allegations about Dr. Kellermann, just because his research makes you feel uncomfortable.

Read the American Medical Association paper, "Silencing The Science On Gun Research"[11]

Again, there are so many research studies on gun violence that have been shutdown by the NRA's political savvy, while they produce rebuttal research papers, that don't amount to much, being pushed forward by bought and paid for Congress members, that do nothing to reduce gun violence, gun deaths or gun injuries. When findings are rushed, the studies leave our questions unanswered. Bear in mind, this is a difficult piece for me to write, because I am ultimately and emphatically judging the final conclusions on the Sandy Hook report and the School Shield report, because the solutions they offered never included extremely pertinent information cited after their reports were made public. Knowing about this information as we do now, at this time, can change the course of how we approach possible future tragic conflicts, which could have been prevented, if certain decision makers can readily access said information.

The correlation between S.B. 353 Session Year 2009 and Riverview Gun Sales are left completely out of the findings of the Sandy Hook report and The National School Shield report.

One has to ask themselves "why"? 

This continued argument over biased and unbiased information has got to cease. Kleck and Lott, who have been placed at the forefront of Progun's DGU argument are not the be all-end all of gun violence research in America. It is time for Gunsense to put away its emotional attachment to the gun violence dialogue and protest that lacks the necessary knowledge to defeat the NRA and GOA members, and make them responsible gun owners by holding them accountable for laxed gun laws in America, and their repeated propaganda campaign, that keeps this nation from moving forward and living in fear. Stop letting the NRA make the 'gun ownership' argument about 'self-defense' only, which lacks the responsibility and regulation of ownership.

You are being beaten down by ignorant little men, with ignorant ideas about what should engage forward thinking. Trying to make you feel guilty about forward thinking, by haranguing you about your lack of "patriotism" or "honor". Your intrinsic duty and objective due to the nation of America is heavily vested in insuring "domestic Tranquility". That "domestic Tranquility" is not borne out of currently arming every man, woman and child in America to appease the senses of those who lay guilt trips on you about the founding of America and how it was accomplished by way of gun. We are not at war, domestically. We do not need to employ soldiers in our schools or universities. 

We are obliged to domestic Tranquility,-- before anything else,-- above all else.

The public at large should not be carrying loaded rifles or shotguns on city streets, in malls, in parks, or in restaurants. We do not need to argue the misinterpreted points of it being Constitutionally "allowed". We just need to refuse to patronize places that allow loaded firearms in their businesses. We do not need to argue the point of why Law Enforcement is allowed to carry a gun and the average citizen is not. We do not need to argue someone's expertise on the subject of guns against your personal expertise with guns. It is irrelevant. 

We do not need to engage those people, who for whatever matter, really have no concept of what it means "to insure domestic Tranquility", who thinks such things occurs at the end of a loaded gun.

Misguided emotion leads to bad policies which ignore the truth (like Stand Your Ground Laws). Policies which have little to do with any restrictions on Liberty or the so-called usurping of the 2nd Amendment are really not up for discussion. The argument of which side is more knowledgeable will cease, when you are no longer bullied by your lack of information on the subject of Microstamping. Knowing about Microstamping will allow you to formally protest lackluster laws. The misgivings we all encounter about gun violence research no longer has to continue without choosing forward progress designed to decrease gun violence. 

The question now is,....

......why are we afraid of the truth IF it will prevent future misgivings?

  
References, Articles, and Research Papers:
[1] Havocscope, Global Black Market Information, Arms Trafficking Black Market

[2] Facebook, Guns For Sale page

[3] State of Connecticut; General Assembly, Senate Bill 353, Co-Sponsored: Sen. Martin Looney & Rep. Andres Ayala 2009

[4] Report of the State's Attorneyfor the Judicial District of Danbury on the Shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School and 36 Yogananda Street, Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012

[5] The National School Shield: The Report of the National School Shield Task Force 2013

[6] MSNBC-"Blackout: How the NRA suppressed Gun Violence Research", original 1-14-2013 updated 10-2-2013, Zachary Roth

[7] ABC-"CDC Ban On Gun Research Caused Lasting Damage", 4-9-2013, Sdyney Lupkin via 20/20

[8] "Gun Control After Heller: Threats and Sideshows From A Social Welfare Perspective", The Law School, The University of Chicago, (Cook, Ludwig, Samaha) 2009

[9] Newswise-"Arthur Kellermann Named Is Dean Of U.S. Military Medical School, 7-22-2013, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), Bethesda, MD.

[10] Salon-"The NRA's War On Gun Science", 7-25-2012, Alex Seitz-Wald

[11] "Silencing the Science On Gun Research", Online First, Viewpoint, JAMA 2-13-2013, Vol. 309, No. 6, (Kellermann and Rivara)

Gun Violence Papers and Research Papers:

A) American Bar Association House of Delegates, Aug 9-10, 2010 Microstamping

B)  Firearm Laws and the Reduction of Violence, 2005 (Hahn, Bilukha, Crosby, Fullilove, Liberman, Moscicki, Synder, Tuma, Briss, American Medical Journal of Preventative Medicine

C) How Delinquent Youths Acquire Guns: Initial Versus Most Recent Gun Acquisition, 2002 (Webster, Freed, Frattaroli, Wilson), Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine: The New York Academy of Medicine.

D) America Under The Gun; A 50 State Analysis of Gun Violence and Its Link To Weak State Gun Laws, 2013 (Gerney, Parsons, Posner), Center For American Progress.

E) Behavior-Oriented Approaches to Reducing Youth Gun Violence, 2002 (Hardy), Future of Children, U.S. National Library of Medicine

F) Firearm Storage Patterns In U.S. Homes With Children, 2000 (Schuster, Franke, Bastian, Sor, Halfon), American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 90 No. 4

G) Safe Firearm Storage Practices: What's The Evidence That They Can Prevent Adolescent Suicide, 2006, (Johnson, Vriniotis, Hemenway), Harvard Injury Control Research Center, Harvard University

H) The Storage Of Household Firearms: An Examination of the Attitudes and Beliefs of Married Women With Children, 2007 (Johnson, Runyan, Coyne-Beasley, Lewis, Bowling), Health Education Research, Oxford University Press

I) Product-Oriented Approaches to Reducing Youth Gun Violence, 2008 (Teret, Culross) Future of Children, U.S. National Library of Medicine