ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, December 20, 1993                   TAG: 9404220018
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WHAT'S NEXT?

FROM the folks that gave us armor-piercing "cop killer" bullets and plastic handguns designed to evade detection by metal detectors in airports and elsewhere, now come stealth bullets.

That's right. The enterprising and ingenious firearms industry has invented caseless ammunition that leaves no telltale casings to help law-enforcement agencies in their criminal investigations involving shootings.

This Christmas, for the criminal who has everything . . . ?

In standard ammunition, the propellent is contained in a metal shell casing with the bullet at its front end and the primer at its rear. The casing, stamped with identifying information, remains when the bullet is fired. This, as well as unique markings left on the shell by a gun's firing, can be used by police or FBI agents to link a shooting, or even a series of seemingly unrelated shootings, to a specific firearm. That, of course, can give law enforcement a leg up in tracking down the firer of the bullet.

But soon, it seems, we can expect the firearms industry to start aggressively marketing phantom bullets. This is caseless ammunition in which the bullet and primer are embedded in a hardened chemical propellant that burns away completely when fired from a gun. That, in turn, should increase the market for high-tech, new-model guns to fire the high-tech, new-model bullets.

Writing in a recent American Firearms Industry publication, Andy Molchan, president of the National Association of Federally Licensed

Firearms Dealers, put it this way: "Without new models that have major technical changes, you eventually exhaust your market."

If we're not all killed first.

These are innovative entrepreneurs, but their creativity needs to be dampened - and fast. Congress needs to get on the case of caseless ammunition. There's a proper federal role in regulating dangerous new firearms technology that poses a threat to public safety and is aimed at thwarting law enforcement. 


 by CNB