Why Micro Chipping Firearms is not a Good Idea
Dogs are required to be micro chipped by law. This involves a vet inserting a micro chip
under the dog’s skin and the details being recorded on a central register. There are
543,972, registered dogs in New Zealand. And a fee is charged for the service.
Conversely there are an estimated 1.5 million licensed firearms in New Zealand. Firearms
are typically made of one or more of the following materials: metal, (steel, aluminium,
brass), plastic and wood. Applying a micro chip poses the following questions:
1. How a micro chip would be attached to a firearm in such a way that it cannot be
removed.
2. Who would do this work?
3. What purpose would it serve?
The answer to the first question is a technical solution yet to be determined that would
need to suit a variety of materials and be non-visible. Since many components of a firearm
can be changed, barrel, stock, bolt etc, the only logical place to attach a microchip would be
the receiver. Would inserting a microchip into a receiver degrade its strength?
The work could be carried out by Police or gunsmiths, but unless the application of the chip
is a very simple process it is probably beyond the skill of Police. While there are currently
499 licensed gun dealers in New Zealand, most of these are retailers, there are very few
qualified gunsmiths. Thus simply applying micro chips to 1.5 million firearms becomes a
major logistical problem. Recording the details on a central register would impose an
additional burden on the already overstretched Police Arms Officers. Officers carrying out
security inspections would need to carry a micro chip reader to verify the chip on each
firearm held by an individual. Every firearm traded (8-10,000 per year) would need to be
taken to a micro chip reader for the data base to be updated and verified.
In order for a micro chip to serve any purpose it must first be recovered, so that the data it
contains may be read and cross referenced to a data base. Unlike dogs which are very
visible when offending and may be fairly easily caught, firearms are generally locked away
or concealed, so unless left at a crime scene or recovered in a police search are much
harder to recover for the chip to be read. When read, the chip will only reveal the identity
of the original owner not necessarily the offender, who stole or used it. It is most likely that
all the guns presently in the black market and most of those in the grey market will never
be chipped.
Thus micro chipping firearms could prove a costly palliative with very little real benefit,
especially if details of stolen firearms are already recorded on a comprehensive Police
database.