After months of delays, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin took one step closer to implementing a law mandating that gun stores in the state sell firearms equipped with microstamp technology.
The 2022 microstamping law comes short of mandating the technology be adopted on all firearms within the state. At least for the time being, Mr. Platkin’s office is tasked with investigating the viability of implementing the microstamping technology and establishing a roster for qualifying firearms.
On Tuesday Mr. Platkin announced the standards and submission process a firearm has to satisfy to be included on the state’s roster of “microstamping-enabled firearms” under the 2022 law. Once firearms are certified for the state’s microstamping-enabled firearms roster, the law requires that all gun stores in the state carry at least one microstamp-enabled firearm for purchase.
These new standards and procedures for submitting a firearm for the roster come months behind schedule. The 2022 bill specifically required the attorney general’s office to have the microstamping regulations ready within 180 days of when it took effect, when Mr. Murphy signed it into law on July 5, 2023.
Though his office is still evaluating the viability of the technology, Mr. Platkin praised its potential positive impact on public safety.
“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,” Mr. Platkin said on Tuesday. “Thanks to Governor Murphy, New Jersey is a national leader in innovative approaches to reducing gun violence, and microstamping is the latest example of that. Its adoption will aid our law enforcement officers in swiftly identifying crime guns and holding perpetrators accountable.”
The 2022 law states that once microstamping-enabled firearms are validated and included on the state roster, New Jersey gun stores will be required to carry at least one microstamping-enabled firearm product for retail sales and must order “at least one firearm on the microstamp roster within 21 days” after the sale of their last microstamping-enabled firearm in their inventory.
Microstamp Laws Face Hurdles
The New Jersey attorney general is not the only official to see delays in adopting firearm microstamping technology.In March, U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney, of California’s Southern District, granted a preliminary injunction blocking the California attorney general’s office from blocking sales of new firearm models that do not feature the microstamping technology but otherwise meet the state’s safety requirements.
The California attorney general’s office has insisted that the microstamping technology is feasible, but that gun manufacturers have simply boycotted its implementation.
Even with the microstamping technology, gun rights groups have argued that determined criminals can easily defeat the technology.
In addition to acquiring firearms that predate the microstamping technology, or removing that technology on new firearms, the NRA-ILA has also warned that criminals could actually use the technology against criminal investigators.
“Criminals would be incentivized to acquire spent cartridge cases at shooting ranges in order to plant them at crime scenes in an attempt to throw the police off their tracks and confound prosecutors,” the NRA-ILA explained.