At 12:52 PM -0700 5/16/98, Igor Chudov @ home wrote:
Jim Gillogly wrote:
Igor said:
I think that the gunpowder taggants are not as bad as it seems at first sight. EVen if all gunpowders are sold with taggants, and if there is enough people wishing to defeat them, they can simply organize gunpowder mixing parties at gun shows. After several such parties, the taggants might become completely useless.
I'm woefully ignorant about reloading, but would this really work? Would you mix your high-quality smokeless with Tim's homebrew black powder, Toto's pebble-ground Canada Red Doobie Mix, and Bell's stinkbomb components and take away the average? Or are different types of powder visually distinct enough or similar enough in effect to mix and match effectively?
I am perhaps even more ignorant, but I think that if you mix the same kind of gunpowder (XYZ's BLAH # 123 gunpowder for example), then there is no problem. But of course mixing different kinds may be asking for trouble -- I have no clue about that.
Also, a gun owner could simply buy gnu powder in various places and mix the batches.
I don't know the particular details of the "taggant" proposal (in terms of which problem it's trying to solve). But here are some generally true comments: * For smokeless powders, i.e., _not_ black powder, the powders are semi-visually recognizable. So Bullseye is noticeably different from Unique and 2400, for example. * However, smokeless powders are worthless for bombs. (Black powder is almost worthless, by modern standards. Much easier to make your own plastique.) * If the goal is to trace shootings, as oppose to bombings, then the focus would be on smokeless powders. However, very few Bad Guys are into reloading, so.... * The only way such a law can be useful is to crack down strongly on ammunition resales, loans, gifts, etc. And a monstrous nightmare of traceability, identity checks, etc. (And what to do with those of us who have several cases (1000 rounds/case) of various kinds of ammo? (I surmise dimbulbs like Diane Feinstein, Sarah Brady, and Barbara Boxer think they can "outlaw" this old ammo, or cause a gang banger in LA to shoot only freshly-purchased ammo.) And so it goes. --Tim May "The tree of liberty must be watered periodically with the blood of tyrants...." ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments.