Bullet-casings requirement may cut shipments of guns
The Washington Times
Sunday, August 13, 2000
Metropolitan Section
p.C12 print edition only
by Margie Hyslop
The Washington Times
Gun makers are mulling whether to limit shipments to Maryland, where new laws requiring
them to provide casings of bullets fired from handguns will go into effect Oct. 1.
A casing bearing unique marks from a gun's barrel and firing pin is to be packaged with each handgun,
then forwarded to state police after the guns are sold. Police can than more easily
determine a gun's origin if it is ever used in a crime.
Gun trade association and industry executives said most manufacturers are likely to begin recovering,
packaging and shipping bullet casings regardless of where their guns are sold, noting that New York is set to
implement a law similar to Maryland's on March 1.
That requirement will increase handgun prices everywhere, although gun makers
said they are not sure by how much.
"I don't see that there's any alternative. If [manufacturers] sell to a distributor in one state,
they won't know where it will be sold," said Lawrence Keane, vice president and general
counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for
firearms manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers.
Executives of RSR Group, one of the largest firearms distributors in the country,
agree. "I think that's what manufacturers may end up having to do - we don't
have any facility for firing guns,' said Beatriz Atorressagasti,
spokesman for Florida-based RSR.
Manufactuirers said they are not sure how they will deal with the added
cost and logistical problems presented by the Maryland mandate.
But some, particularly small manufacturers, may opt to sell fewer or no guns in
Maryland.
Althought the new law does not require gun makers based in the state to ship casings
with handguns to be sold out-of-state, that exemption may become moot for
Maryland's only major gun maker, Accokeek-based Baretta
USA, given market realities.
"Some wholesalers I've talked to don't know what they are going to do,' said Baretta's general manager,
Steven Parsick. "Right now, we are evaluating ways to service dealers in Maryland...
We may even eat the cost, since it's in our home state, but if it branches out, then everyone will have to pay."
The law specifically addresses the responsibilities of manufacturers and dealers,
but [only] the distributors actually know to which state the guns are going
because they ship to dealers who sell them.
"They are going to have to ensure that it's taken care of," said Maryland State Police Major Greg Shipley.
However, if a Maryland dealer receives a handgun before Oct. 1 but sells it on or after that date,
the dealer does not have to forward fired casings and other identifying information
for entry into a new state ballistics "fingerprinting" database, Major Shipley said.
Still, industry spokemen said vagaries of implementing the policy show
that lawmakers were more concerned about politics than practicalities when they passed the law.
Manufacturers are worried about mix-ups they cannot control as the bullet casings
and identifiers are passed on to police who will enter information in a computer database.
Most gun makers testfire their products, but the don't yet have processes or personnel
to collect casings amd maintain a chain of evidence for police.
The database the Maryland mandate aims to create may become a useful law-enforcement tool,
said, Robert Joyce, a former prosecutor who is an attorney for gun-maker SIG Arms.
Mr. Joyce said, however, its usefulness will be hampered by uncertainties about
chances for erroneous 'matches' and the fact that ballistics markings change with
wear and tear, even if no one tampers with the gun to alter them.
