Fun Turns to Tragedy!!!

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I am a gun enthusiast trapped in the People's Republic of Maryland. My political affiliation is Independent, as the Ruling parties are both full of crap, and long ago stopped representing the common man. If the Libertarians weren't such freaks I would probably be one. I am a member of the Nation of Riflemen and damn proud of it. I once took an oath that I would support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. As far as I know I never broke that oath, and will continue to follow it. I am not Politically Correct and will NEVER be Politically Correct. If you need to know more, feel free, Ask.

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Tuesday, February 26, 2008

the Ammo encoding hearing.

I tried to live blog this but it did not happen. Here is my wrap up of the day.

HB-517 hearing an all day affair: 12:45

There were quite a few bills being heard today.
The First bill was about electronic intercept of electronic messages. Some legislator is beating this like a dead horse. They are arguing about the difference between stored and live transmission. Gahh.
Its like watching Bill Clinton trying to getting a definition.

The legislator that sponsored HB-517 is up : 2ish
He starts by trying to push this as a last chance for law enforcement. Which drew more than its fair share of chuckles as ballistic fingerprinting database has solve oh so many crimes so far.
The lawmaker amended the bill to only cover pistols. Once again trying to make it a law enforcement tool.

Some loser from Washington State is now testifying. He claims to be a gun owner, and a Concealed Carry permit holder. I think the last name was Ford. Ammunition Coding Technology is his company. States that cops can track bullets at the crime scene. Yep I can just see the cops now prying the bullet out of the victim in order to get out there jewelers loop to get the serial number off of the bullet.

Seems the loser from Washington is not faring well he just got shredded by a lawmaker. then the lawmaker just drilled him as the patent holder about how much money he stands to make. Also seems he is the sole owner of said patent
A different lawmaker also want to see a fired round. Not just the pristine round that they were given for their examination. He seems to have a fired round that is completely shredded.

Its not looking good for this bill and there has still been no opposition heard. The committee members are taking care of it for us.

The bill sponsor wants to put a use by date on existing ammo. That had me about ready to fall on the floor laughing. He seems to be troubled that he is loosing the battle.

Another lawmaker is going after the tax and the fact that there are no ammo manufacturers in MD. That lawmaker is also going after interstate commerce as an issue citing Hawaii’s battle with the same bill

Now the bill sponsor is trying to tell us that Maryland should be a leader for other states in fighting crime. His last statement was that he feels that Concealed Cary would lead to bedlam.

One other lawmaker tried to defend the guy, says that there is other technology out there to make this not seem like a sole source.

Only one person testified in favor of this and she was from Baltimore…

Now that the people testifying for this bill have finished it seems we will have to wait as they are hearing other bills.

I took the time to go outside to the hallway. There were at least 50 more people out there. The guy from Washington State was out hobnobbing with the MD police who I am assuming are going to testify for the bill (turns out they were there for something else). All told there were probably 150 people from our side at the meeting.

Well it is 4:40 and they are just hearing the last bill before we get our say

My bad, I just thought it was the last one as it is now 6:42 and we still have yet to have our say. But, hey I found out that there is a bill in committee to expunge records of nuisance crimes. So go out and drink in public, it will all be ok.

Yea. 7:19

First guy up from Remington, states that there are 8-10 billion rounds a year. 1800 rounds a minute of the assembly line and there is no way to encode at that rate. Very well spoken. He slams encoding very hard. Points out the hazard of lasers around powder and primers. I had not thought of that yet.

Next guy is from Federal. Also dissing encoding due to automated equipment. Also very well spoken. Says the costs would be passed on to the consumer and police. States that there is no technology capable of keeping up with rim fire ammunition manufacture rates

The manufactures also would have liability issues due to the tracking of the rounds from point of manufacture through the distribution to the end user. They would not be happy with the system as envisioned.

A lawmaker asked them what the chances of them making ammo for just MD were. He stated that they were not good.
The lawmaker then asked if there were just a few states.
The ammo manufactures then went in on how it would have to be a business case but even then they cost of setting up the facilities would be fairly prohibitive.

All and all I think this thing is dead just based on the Manufactures testimony.

Now we have all the local MD orgs. But everyone is tired, looks like this thing is as good as dead…

8:16 PM. Finally finished. Time for the long walk to the car.

There were other points made that I have not had time to go into yet but I think we can stick a fork in this one.

Update: Edited to correct spelling and other small details that I left out while hurrying to correct the email from my iPhone that I used to take notes during the hearing.
Update #2: Thanks Steve…. My spelling sucks and I know it…

FINAL UPDATE: “Status as of March 3, 2008: Bill is in the House - Unfavorable Judiciary”

Posted by Kirk on 02/26 at 11:54 PM
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