Tomorrow, the House Police & Fire Committee will hear House Bill 2769 House Floor Amendment No. 4, to waste taxpayer money to promote “microstamping” on firearms. Please file witness slips against HB 2769 HFA 4. The hearing will be held by video conference. Click here for information on filing witness slips or participating in the hearing.
In addition, you may click the button below to contact committee members and ask them to OPPOSE HB 2769 HFA 4.
House Bill 2769 House Floor Amendment No. 4 creates a $500,000 grant program for law-enforcement agencies in the state to purchase firearms equipped with microstamping that purports to imprint unique marks onto discharged cartridge casings. Currently, microstamping is proprietary technology offered by just one business, meaning that these grants financially benefit just them. While this bill only deals with optional grants for law-enforcement, the language specifically states that this is to “bring microstamp-ready firearms into use in Illinois.” Anti-gun extremists will use such a scheme to eventually force microstamping onto private citizens.
Microstamping is easily defeated, deliberately or inadvertently, by switching parts, by it becoming worn through normal use and cleaning of the firearm, or by deliberately defacing by grinding, abrading, etc.
Because criminals often use stolen firearms, microstamping might, at best, identify who was the last lawful owner of the firearm. Criminals could also collect cartridge casings from shooting ranges to drop at crime scenes in order to fool investigators, pick up their cartridge casings before leaving the crime scene, or use firearms, such as revolvers, that do not automatically eject them.
Again, please file witness slips and contact committee members to ask them to OPPOSE HB 2769 HFA 4.
