On Sat, 01 Nov 2014 09:34:20 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 11/1/2014 8:01 AM, Poco Loco wrote:
On Fri, 31 Oct 2014 21:19:40 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 10/31/2014 8:49 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 31 Oct 2014 13:02:04 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

Raises another question. Ever wonder why a new gun comes with a spent
shell in the box or case?

To test functionality. And/Or, to build a database of gun "fingerprints", i.e. bullet striations. That info, along with registration, can lead back to the owner.

I have never bought a gun with a case in the box.
I do question the validity of all of these ballistic fingerprint
things if the gun has been used a lot. I agree that if they have the
gun and a recently fired bullet or case, they usually can match them
up but if this gun has several thousand rounds of barrel erosion and
the slings and arrows of dirty ammo going through it, matching up
tool marks from the day it was made is going to be far from exact.

I bet the difference between S/N xxxxx1 and xxxxx2 brand new is less
than xxxx1 to xxxx1 after years of hard use. If the same tool cut the
rifling, won't the tool marks be very close to the same?




Interesting. When was the last time you bought a new gun?

Every gun I have purchased in the past 3-4 years has an envelope with a
spent round casing that was fired from the gun at the factory.

It's also mandatory that new guns come with some type of lock.

Is this a MA thing or is it true everywhere?


The S&W's I bought came with a shell casing in a sealed envelope. The
Sig Sauers came without a casing. The Kimber also came without a
casing, but it did have a sticker on the box saying, "NO SHELL CASING
FOR MARYLAND."


Ah .. That suggests the purpose is other than simply to prove the gun
was test fired.


Interesting:
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/201...ing-technology

"Maryland has already been down the road of requiring that a fired
shell casing be provided for every pistol sold in the state (that
being a simpler type of microstamping). That requirement has not
produced a single criminal conviction in 15 years, and the Maryland
State Police no longer enter the shell casings into a searchable
database both because of the cost and lack of effectiveness of the
technology. In fact, New York recently repealed its shell case
requirement in order to use those funds to hire more state police,
leaving Maryland as the only state that still retains this costly and
ineffective requirement. Repeating the shell casing mistake with a
more expensive, less reliable technology just wastes even more
resources."