New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin (D) outlined the state’s plan to require guns sold in the state be outfitted with micrcostamping technology to leave an “identifying marker” on spent shell casings.
Two things: 1) The technology only applies to semiautomatic firearms, as they are the guns that eject shell casings after each shot. Therefore, criminals who use revolvers will immediately circumvent the microstamping issue. 2). Maryland had a microstamping requirement for 15 years and ended it after spending $5 million to maintain the microstamping database but solving no crimes.
Yet NJ AG Platkin said, “This amazing yet straightforward technology – imprinting unique identifiers on the firing pin of firearms – will have a profound impact on public safety across the state,” according to The Center Square.
He added, “Its adoption will aid our law enforcement officers in swiftly identifying crime guns and holding perpetrators accountable.”
Thus far in U.S. history, microstamping has not resulted in a windfall of otherwise unsolvable gun crimes being solved. As noted above, Maryland tried for 15 years to make microstamping work and ended up shuttling the program.
Even in instances where the criminal uses pistol that has a microstamp on its firing pin, it is possible to quickly remove the stamp. Therefore, the NRA pointed out microstamping “can be defeated with common hand tools in under a minute.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at
