For people who don't follow gun policy, the term "microstamping" might be unfamiliar. Microstamping is kind of what it sounds like. It's stamping on a small level. The idea is that you can make firearms stamp shell casings with a unique number that allows law enforcement to know which gun fired it.
It also isn't a thing except in people's imagination...or California Attorney General Rob Bonta's delusions.
It's long been a dream to mandate that all guns have microstamping technology because it'll make law enforcement's job so much easier. Yet, as I said, the technology really doesn't exist.
But Bonta's office released a report claiming that it actually is "viable."
California Attorney General Rob Bonta today released a report finding that firearm microstamping technology is technologically viable when imprinting a unique microscopic array of characters, referred to as a microstamp, on spent cartridge cases discharged by a firearm into which a microstamped firing pin has been installed. This report follows recent amendments to the Unsafe Handgun Act, including requiring that new semiautomatic pistols must have microstamping capabilities that allow law enforcement to trace a shell casing to the pistol that fired it. The California Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigation found that microstamping components installed in semiautomatic pistols regularly produce microstamps on spent cartridge cases discharged by these firearms, including after sustained or repeat firing. The investigation was led by DOJ’s Bureau of Forensic Services, performed in consultation with relevant legal and subject matter experts, and included input from stakeholders, who were invited to provide written comments relevant to DOJ’s technological viability investigation.
“My office’s investigation into the technological viability of microstamping components has found that this technology is viable,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Microstamping technology could help law enforcement match cartridges found at crime scenes directly to the firearms they came from. Today, my office released a report outlining the findings of our investigation in an effort to provide appropriate transparency as to the basis of our determination.”
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In 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 452, authored by Senator Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas), which amended California’s Unsafe Handgun Act and added separate Penal Code provisions that adopted new requirements concerning microstamping components in semiautomatic pistols sold or transferred in the state. California Penal Code section 27532 required DOJ to investigate the technological viability of microstamping components. Beginning January 1st, 2028, the Unsafe Handgun Act will mandate that all semiautomatic handguns sold by licensed dealers must be verified as microstamping enabled.
The problem is that he's provided absolutely no evidence to back up his claim that the technology is, in fact, viable. It's just his office, which means attorneys who work for him, none of whom are likely to have an actual engineering background, much less any expertise in firearm engineering.
One of the other issues with this technology is how easy it would be to subvert the microstamping. This is going to be a part that is either not critical to the firing of the gun or is replaceable with a part that is typical of those used outside of California.
And you'd better believe that criminals are going to try that with almost every gun that gets trafficked onto the black market.
Of course, one has to wonder why they would even bother, since they have all these other gun control laws that should make firearms easily traceable as it is. Could it be that those didn't work, either?
Shocking, I know.
What's likely to happen is that there will be a lawsuit, the courts will get involved, and we'll see battles likely along two different fronts. One will challenge the claim that the technology is viable. The other will challenge the law's existence in the first place.
At the end of the day, the criminals of the Golden State are going to keep doing what they've been doing. Regular folks are going to get screwed with fewer and fewer choices of firearms, between this and the fact that they can only buy firearms that exist on a certain list that's growing shorter by the day.
Par for the course with an anti-gun state, though.
