Calls for the Inclusion of Microstamping in the Upcoming Budget Proposal
(Albany, NY) – Senator Neil D. Breslin (D – Delmar) along with his fellow Senate Democrats and Assemblymembers, family members who have lost loved ones to gun violence, advocates and law enforcement, joined forces at the State Capitol to urge the State Senate to include microstamping in this year’s budget proposal. Microstamping, which connects shell casings from crime scenes to the first purchaser of a weapon, would provide law enforcement with a critical tool to solve gun crimes. Microstamping has passed the Assembly several times, but so far the Senate has been unwilling to approve it.
In his executive budget proposal, Governor Cuomo proposed the repeal of a pistol and revolver ballistic identification database – known as CoBIS – creating a gap in the ability of law enforcement to link shell casings back to the gun that fired them.
“The elimination of CoBIS from the executive budget presents a gap in crime detection and crime prevention,” Senator Breslin explained. “The enactment of microstamping would bridge this gap and go a step further in protecting the safety and security of all New Yorkers.”
Microstamping ensures that when a gun is fired, information identifying its make, model and serial number is stamped onto the ejected cartridge as a tiny alpha-numeric code. “Microstamped” shell casings make it possible for law enforcement to trace and determine critical facts about the guns used in many unsolved crimes, even if the crime gun itself is never found.
Microstamping has the support of numerous law enforcement and municipal officials around the state, including over 100 mayors and 80 police departments and law enforcement organizations.
“Legislators, advocates, law enforcement, and citizens from all across New York State agree - we need microstamping legislation and we need it now,” Senator Breslin concluded. “We cannot keep putting off this common sense legislation which will make cities safer by helping law enforcement put gun criminals behind bars. Time is of the essence; the sooner microstamping becomes law, the sooner it will help solve violent crimes, deter illegal gun trafficking, and ultimately save lives."
To read a report released by New Yorkers Against Gun Violence on the devastating impact of unsolved gun crimes on families across New York visit http://www.nyagv.org/documents/ShellCasingsAnonymousReport.pdf [2].
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