Thursday, December 11, 2008

Business Plan

Imagine, for a moment, that there is a product out there, that a lot of people buy. Let's say they are Widgets. Now imagine that you have come up with a process that will add a Frammis to every widget, at some cost, which would be added to the price of the widget.

So you visit widget factories all over the country, and try to get them to buy your process, and add the frammises to their widgets. Problem is that the consumers really have little use for frammisses, and find the cost of having one attached to each widget to be prohibitive, to the point that they insist to the marketing types that they would buy their widgets from another source, rather than bear the added cost of having a frammis attached.

At this point, it doesn't look good for your plan to become rich, but wait! You go to the government, and convince them that there is some benefit to them, however slight, to requiring a frammis with every widget. Try not to mention that you hold the patent on frammis attachment, it might look self-serving. Speak, instead of campaign contributions for forward-looking politicians. Got possibilities? Here it is.

Legislation to trace ammunition is pending in several states, and many gun owners are concerned that it is just another attempt by anti-gun groups to violate citizens' Second Amendment rights.

An organization known as Ammunition Accountability is pushing to make coding technology mandatory across the nation. Its website claims it is a group of "gun crime victims, industry representatives, law enforcement, public officials, public policy experts, and more" who are "saving lives one bullet at a time."

These guys already tried to sell the idea on its own merits, such as they were.

According to Seattle Weekly, the men couldn't find an ammunition manufacturer to agree to stamp bullets, so they hired a lobbyist to push for state legislation to require the laser coding. They launched the Ammunition Accountability website and successfully introduced bills in the following 18 states: Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington.
No doubt pushing the idea that this would somehow benefit "the children", who are, I suspect, limited to the inventors own children.

If states pass the legislation, manufacturers will be required to laser etch a serial number into the back of each bullet and the inside of cartridge casings, a patented process developed by Seattle, Wash., resident Russ Ford and his business partners, Steve Mace and John Knickerbocker.
RTWT. Then drop your legislator a line pointing out the self-serving and monopolistic nature of this idea. Point out that someone of his or her stature shouldn't sell out for less than, say, a seat in the US Senate.

You might also ask how long you will go to jail for if ammo stolen from you, but not reported, as the theft wasn't noticed, is used in a crime. Do you get charged with the crime, or do you just get 5 years for failure to report the theft?

According to its sample legislation, manufacturers would be forced to code all ammunition sold in the state. Private citizens and retail outlets would be required to dispose of all non-coded ammunition no later than Jan. 1, 2011.
A friend of mine has a Brown Bess musket. He casts his own musket balls. Who's going to make, ship and sell laser-encoded musket balls?
What about shotgun shells? I could see the 18" coach gun becoming popular with folks outside the cowboy action fraternity.

Machiavelli famously observed that the successful prince could, and should, be freely generous with other peoples money.

Ammunition Accountability explains its system would require states to establish databases to track coded ammunition for handguns and assault rifles. The databases would be funded by a surcharge of up to five cents per bullet.

At that rate, a brick of .22 would go up by $27.50, nearly tripling the price of plinking.

When it comes time to dispose of non-coded ammo, does anything come to mind as a target?

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