California Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood) has introduced a bill that “would, commencing Jan. 1, 2007, expand the definition of unsafe handgun to include semi-automatic pistols that are not designed and equipped with a microscopic array of characters that identify the make, model, and serial number of the pistol, etched into the interior surface or internal working parts of the pistol, and which are transferred by imprinting on each cartridge case when the firearm is fired.”

Furthermore, “This bill would provide that . . . no handgun may be submitted for that testing unless the handgun is” so designed and equipped.

This will, of course, stop and/or solve no violent crimes. That’s not the point.

The point is to further limit the availability of firearms to California citizens by drying up their sources of supply. After Proposition 15, which would have prevented any new handguns from coming into California, was defeated by the voters in 1982, the anti-gunners have been looking for other ways to accomplish the same goal.

Claiming they were protecting gunowners by eliminating unsafe guns, the state started with their “drop test” requirement, except for guns owned by law-enforcement officers. Then moved on to mandated loaded chamber indicators (like the kind that was on the Beretta 92 Compact L that Michael Soe used to kill Kenzo Dix during a practical joke—but a Center to Prevent Handgun Violence-backed lawsuit was still filed because the gun didn’t have a written warning on it as well).

The reptiles that leave brass at crime scenes don’t get their guns through channels traceable to them. Koretz, of course, knows that. It’s just another calculated harassment of gun manufacturers and dealers, designed to drive them out of business by creating prohibitively expensive compliance requirements.asking for equal treatment.”