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Pennsylvania House of Representatives
04/17/2024 09:04 PM
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20210&cosponId=35963
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House of Representatives
Session of 2021 - 2022 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: June 29, 2021 03:02 PM
From: Representative Stephen Kinsey and Rep. Manuel Guzman, Jr.
To: All House members
Subject: Encoded Ammunition
 
Since 2015, only 21% of the nearly 8,500 shootings that Philadelphia has endured have resulted in an arrest or conviction. Far too often, all that is left for the police to find is a victim and a bullet. By making the bullet a more useable piece of evidence, independent from the associated firearm, we can give our law enforcement officers the tools that they need to solve more of these heinous crimes.
 
For this reason, we will be introducing legislation that would require ammunition manufacturers to encode ammunition provided for retail sale. It would also require manufacturers to provide ammunition serial numbers to the Pennsylvania State Police, who would be responsible for keeping a database on all encoded ammunition sold in Pennsylvania. In order to fund these new requirements, a tax of five cents per round of ammunition would be imposed on all non-law enforcement ammunition sales. Individuals would be able to file for a tax return for a credit of 0.5% of the gross amount of the tax paid.
 
By maintaining a record of purchases of ammunition, our law enforcement officers will be able to easily trace the ownership of any ammunition involved in a crime. This proposal is a much more reliable method of forensic tracing than current systems like ballistic fingerprinting since determination of a bullet’s code does not require any special skills or equipment, and it serves as an objective identifier.
 
Estimates suggest that Americans buy 10 to 12 billion rounds of ammunition every year. It is time for us to keep track of these lethal weapons and ensure that we have the tools necessary to convict individuals who use their firearms for unlawful purposes.
 
Please join us in co-sponsoring this important piece of legislation.
 


Introduced as HB1786