Guys, so here's the scoop:

1) Three guys in Washington state (ringleader Russ Ford describing himself as a shooter) come up with the notion that the same technology used by the post office to encode and sort letters could be used to encode ammunition components, thereby enabling law enforcement to track down to the bullet who fired the shot, since all ammunition - so serialized - could be tracked from point of sale.

2) They patent the idea.

3) They hire a lobbying firm to help push the idea, as well as politicking various law enforcement and gunowner groups in an attempt to gain support in state and local governments.

4) They suggest a nominal and very affordable"licensing fee" would be added to each round of ammunition, somewhere between 1/10 and 1/5 of a cent, paid them by the ammunition manufacturers for use of their patent, of course passed along to the consumer.

The fly in the ointment: BOTH the case interior and the bullet base would be marked with matching alphanumeric codes (they say it's possible to mark something anywhere a beam of light can be shone). This would require very extensive quality control measures, as any error by the manufacturer (in their draft legislation) would carry with it a $10,000 fine. With approximately 8 billion rounds of ammunition manufactured each year in the U.S. alone (and no, military and police would not be exempt), imagine the complexity of marking and keeping together a piece of brass and a bullet? Daunting, to say the least, especially with a "per incident" fine carried along with it?

Reloading? Only if you had a means to renumber the case with whatever serial number was on the bullet you were going to use, which implies you'd have to own the laser marking system, which would probably then classify you as a manufacturer and subject you to the $10,000 fine as well.

And what would happen with firms like Nosler, Sierra, etc., who don't necessarily sell their own loaded cartridges, but do sell them to major ammunition manufacturers like Federal, Winchester, and Remington. How would the serial numbers on their bullets be matched to the serial numbers on the cases? No more premium ammunition?

And, not to mention that their patent includes NO production-level testing. They've proven the components can be marked, but haven't spent a dime proving the principles can be applied successfully in a production environment. Effectively, that'd be up to the manufacturers to prove one way or another - and if it can't be done, the ammunition manufacturer essentially would be out of business, since it'd already be required by law (cart before the horse?).

So, imagine it this way: You and a couple buddies come up with an idea, go get a patent, then hire someone to help you convince lawmakers (some who are apparently quite gullible) to make your patent idea a law, then you collect the royalties. Oh, and for 8 billion rounds of ammunition a year, that comes to about $8 million dollars a yearin royaltiesand you don't have much to do but watch the money roll in.

This isn't necessarily President Obama's idea, but you might want to write your state legislator(s) and impress upon them the folly of this idea. There's an interview between NRA-ILA's Cam and Russ Ford on the NRA-ILA's website, which I've just sort of summed up above. It's about 43 minutes long. States like TN and MS are currently looking at something like this, in addition to a number of Eastern Bloc and Left Coast states.

Truly a half-baked idea whose only utility is lining three Washington residents and their attorneys' pockets. Bad guys will still get ammo the old-fashioned way (steal it), and the law-abiding gunowner would pay.