With a sniper on the run in DC, shooting up innocent American’s like it is some sort of game at the state fair, a new debate is bubbling on the hill. It is called Ballistic Fingerprinting.
If you are not familiar with this, it simply provides each and every gun manufactured with a “signature” so that when shell casings are found, it can be immediately linked to the gun that fired it. Think about your own fingerprints. If ballistic fingerprinting became law, guns would have fingerprints too.
Of course, that’s over the NRA’s dead bodies. After all, this sniper is doing nothing but exercising his 2nd Amendment Right to own military grade equipment. Let’s not get into the discussion that when the Constitution was written, the most accurate rifles could shoot 50 feet tops. Where do you think the term, don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes comes from? John Paul Jones said it during the American Revolution, utilizing Constitutional era weapons, because a person literally had to be that close to you or your shot was worthless.
Interestingly enough, the Bush White House is saying no to ballistic fingerprinting. Who knew that when Dubbya stole the office, he’d be handing out free ski masks to all felons. The White House is citing privacy issues with ballistic fingerprinting. Yes, it would be a shame if we knew the identity of the sniper. But that would be invading his privacy.
While we are at it, why don’t we just ask the law enforcement agencies of the United States to stop dusting for normal fingerprints. That is an equal invasion of privacy.
Ballistic fingerprinting does have limitations, of course. One, it would only tell law enforcement agencies who originally purchased the gun. If the gun were stolen or sold without a change in the registration, then the trail would stop. But in my mind, that would at least give law enforcement a place to start.
But that would require gun owners who purchase new guns to register. Another thorn in the side of the NRA. Register? That would be letting the government know what type and how many guns you have. Exactly. That’s the point.
I have to register my car. The government knows what type and how many cars I own. And if I use it to kill someone, then can find me based off of that registration. They can track my plate number.
If it’s not a big deal to register a car, what is the big deal in registering a gun? Especially since guns kill roughly 30,000 people a year.
I have to register my dog. I don’t mind telling the State of Ohio what type and how many dogs I have. Because my dogs are not trained to kill the mailman or maul the neighbors. Plus if my dog ever gets lost, he may be returned to me based on the registration information.
So I have a little trouble with the NRA when they complain about registering guns. Or when they say armor piercing bullets are OK. Now they are complaining about ballistic fingerprinting. What’s next? Shell case-less ammo. I can’t wait to see how the NRA justifies that.
The problem I see is based on the 2nd Amendment itself. Here is a quick history lesson. The 2nd Amendment is:
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Does the Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantee the individual right to bear arms or merely the collective right to bear arms? “Most legal scholars,” Grey Davidson writes in his book Under Fire, “find the ‘collective right’ position more convincing than the NRA’s interpretation.” This includes Erwin Griswold, a former dean of the Harvard Law School, former Supreme Court Justice Lewis, and Warren Burger, who, though a lifelong hunter and gun owner, has called the gun lobby’s interpretation “one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word fraud, on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime…”
People do not feel safe going out to pump gas. People fear for their kids as they drop them off for school. People are being shot while they unload groceries for their family. Am I talking about Washington, D.C., or Israel? Am I talking about Washington, D.C., or the Ivory Coast?
Why turn down ballistic fingerprinting? How about we just go back to days when the FBI was not allowed to carry guns, too.