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The Pros And Cons Of Bullet Coding

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Bullet Coding is a Failed Law
Another mass shooting, over twenty dead and even more injured. A police officer is shot during a routine traffic stop. A person crying at court during a lengthy trial for the person that shot a family member. Gun violence is front and center everywhere we look, in the media and the government, but no one seems to have a solution to it. Many are fighting for stricter laws, some say guns aren’t the problem. Across the nation politicians are proposing laws track and stop the shootings. California is usually at the front of that fight, passing first of its kind laws and setting the stage for other states to follow; however, most of these laws are not thought out and only used to get media attention. California's bullet …show more content…

The coding is engraved in two places on the gun and will mark the shells with a barcode and the serial number of the gun as a round is fired. When the gun is fired, the shells ejected can then be matched to the gun, then matching it to the registered owner, so criminals will think twice before shooting. While this is a good idea in theory, there are many errors in the actual process. Criminals are getting smarter as the technology to catch them advances, like wearing gloves to not leave fingerprints. Since the technology is not advanced enough, it’s not being implemented worldwide, and the data entry has infinite failure points, the law will not work and waste millions of …show more content…

Over 300,000 cartridges were collected and logged in this database in fifteen years. After spending five million dollars on the program, it was repealed for being ineffective. In an article from All Outdoor, Maryland had only twenty-six matches during the fifteen years, with most guns already known and only used the database as a double check (Reed, “Maryland's 15 Year Old ‘Ballistic Fingerprinting’ Database Ends in Failure”). New York’s law lasted twelve years with only two guns matched to crimes. The thousands of hours, people, and expensive equipment needed to keep such a database going and accurate is unrealistic. Think how many issues the DMV has with its database, and there are more guns than people. How many people would it take to track every gun, who the current owner is, has it been sold or stolen, and was it destroyed? The idea that this database will be able to keep up with demand is ridiculous and a waste of

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