Friday, February 03, 2006

Groundhog Appears Again

Tom Barrett, Mayor of Milwaukee, has made his second statement on an issue with Statewide implications. The drumbeat is picking up a bit...

This time, Barrett yapped about some changes to gun laws (for Milwaukee.)

Showed his not-very-firm grip on elementary physics (which Fox6 News accepted at face value, but Channel4 News did not.)

Barrett's latest: require that gun manufacturers submit a "fingerprint" of a bullet fired from the gun before the weapon is sold at retail. Supposedly this will enable police to track back the ownership of the weapon if used criminally.

Right.

Most handguns discharge the bullet at speeds over 900 feet per second. It was pointed out by Jim Fendry (Channel4's research) that the "fingerprint" of a gun's barrel on that slug will change after 500 rounds or so are run through the barrel.

Besides that rather obvious problem, Barret's proposal, which would merely add costs to the cycle, ignores the possibilities that: 1) the gun is stolen; or 2) the perp can file markers into the throat or barrel, changing the 'fingerprint.'

Barrett mentioned a Maryland case in which the method was effective. It so happens that there is ONLY ONE case in which this method worked. It's the Needle in the Haystack case.

Regardless of Tom's ....ah....grip.....on gun physics, the fact that he surfaced twice in 10 days is significant. Mostly to BagManJim Doyle, the most corrupt Governor to occupy the office in recent memory.

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