New Jersey, fresh after passing a law to mandate the sale of smart guns that don't exist, is now planning to jump on the ballistic fingerprinting bandwagon, despite the lack of evidence that it will work. It's tempting to ascribe this to anti-gun malice, but as usual, stupidity is the better option:
The bill's sponsor, Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), said it is part of a much broader ballistics fingerprinting initiative that has already passed the Democrat-controlled Assembly and is awaiting action from the evenly split Senate.Great idea! I have another proposal: why not make it illegal to shoot people? 'Cause, you know, as long as people are going to obey the law, it seems as if you should skip the interim step and actually outlaw the acts you're trying to prevent.Weinberg's bill is still in committee, but she called it a crucial component to state's gun-control efforts.
"This bill was designed to answer those naysayers who say you can't do ballistics fingerprinting because criminals can make changes to obfuscate those markings," she said. "We're now saying it's illegal to make changes."