Commerce in Weapons
For an item to be considered a PDDW for the purposes of this document,
its fabrication must be practical only with the assistance of machine
tools, high power presses or swages, electrical circuits, and/or
industrial chemicals. No weapon that can be constructed without the
assistance of such equipment can be construed to be a PDDW regulated
by this section. For the purposes of this section, a PDDW must
readily and reliably enable the killing of a human being at a distance
of ten meters. Knives and archery equipment cannot be construed as
PDDW's.
A firearm is a device which propels a projectile, either by the
exertion of pressure from the combustion or other expansion of a
propellant constrained within a chamber, or by electromagnetic or
electrostatic action. If and only if a firearm is readily capable of
propelling a projectile with a kinetic energy of 40 joules or greater,
at a peak speed of 100 meters/second or greater, it is a PDDW for the
purposes of this section, except as exempted above. Any firearm
cartridge or bullet readily usable in a PDDW is a PDDW item for the
purposes of this section.
No restrictions can be placed on the features and characteristics of a
PDDW except those set forth in § On Weapons of Mass Destruction. In
particular, except as enumerated in this section, no constraints can
be placed on the bore, muzzle velocity, bullet construction and
composition, action and rate of fire, cartridge capacity, grip and
ergonomic characteristics, sighting devices and accuracy, attached
bayonet, grenade launcher, appearance, technology, or dimensions of a
firearm.
PDDW manufacturers are required to provide the state with forensic
tracking data when feasible. The manufacturer of any firearm with a
rifled barrel must provide the state with a measurement of each
barrel's signature as determined from a test firing, along with a
description of the device. A manufacturer of firearms or firearm
components must stamp or otherwise record a unique identifier on each
receiver and barrel, in a tamper-resistant manner. A serialized
unique alphanumeric identifier must be associated with the smallest
unit of retail sale of expendables (principally, ammunition). This
identifier must be legibly written in a tamper-resistant manner, with
ink, paint, dye, or by other means, on any projectile weighing more
than 16 grams. The identifier must be stamped, engraved, or otherwise
recorded, in a tamper-resistant manner, on the shell case, when the
ammunition includes cases. When the ammunition is caseless, the
identifier must by legibly written, in a tamper-resistant manner, with
ink, paint, dye, or by other means, on the propellant portion of the
ammunition. A unique signature chemistry, signature object, or other
tamper-resistant marker, must be associated with each unique
identifier, and must be embedded within the body of each bullet, slug,
shot ball, or other projectile, either mixed with ballasting material,
or under a jacket, or in a fully contained cavity possibly mixed with
an incendiary or other compound, or otherwise contained within the
projectile, except that any unjacketed projectile consisting of a
monolith of metal as hard as or harder than copper or bronze, is
exempted from the requirement of internal signature marking, but must
instead bear external tamper-resistant chemical staining or other
treatment (particularly including the portion of the projectile that
is concealed from view when the projectile is seated in a cartridge
case or bonded to a propellant load), from which a forensic signature
can be determined, which marking must survive ordinary firing but need
not survive a deliberate attack with abrasion, heat, chemical
corrosion, or other disfiguring techniques. Any signature marker must
be readily readable/measurable by a well-equipped forensics lab,
perhaps through the use of specialized equipment. Each manufacturer
of such signature markers must supply the state with information
necessary and sufficient to determine the manufacturer and serial
number associated with a PDDW item containing those signature markers,
using forensic techniques. These signature markers must be considered
PDDW items themselves. Serial identifiers must be used in recording
any transfer of custody of firearms, barrels, receivers, ammunition,
cases, bullets, or any other PDDW item. The manufacturer of a PDDW
item must maintain an exhaustive database matching forensic
information to serial identifiers.
No law can specify the use of a particular technique of signature
marking, although (with the above exception) a minimum standard of
robustness (in terms of mechanical, thermal, and chemical stresses)
can be specified by law. No such standard can effectively require a
functionally significant degradation in performance or a significant
degradation of price/performance ratio.
In any transfer of custody of a PDDW item (a PDDW, receiver, barrel,
ammunition, bullet, cartridge case, forensic signature substance,
etc.) the giver is required to verify the validity of the buyer's
license before completing the transfer. In so doing, the seller must
access the license revocation/suspension database anonymously.
Additionally, the buyer must cryptographically sign a transaction
document identifying the PDDW item by description and serial
identifier(s) and the time and place of transaction, confirming the
purchase, and the seller must cryptographically verify the signature.
This act makes the buyer the custodian of record. The buyer's
signature must be verified using the public key supplied by the buyer
and matching the identity specified in the PDDW license. This public
key must be certified by a state certificate authority, and the
certificate must be verified either with the seller's copy of the
appropriate public key of the appropriate state certificate authority,
or by retrieving the appropriate public key of the appropriate state
certificate authority.
A transaction document identifies the prior chain of custody, exactly
one buyer, exactly one seller, exactly one date and time of
transaction, and the description (including number/quantity) and
serial identifier of some number of identical PDDW items all of which
have the same serial identifier.
The seller can reveal the contents of the transaction document only
according to the terms specified in § Right to Secrecy, except as
specified in this section; it is assumed that the buyer wishes the
transaction to be held in confidence whether or not he explicitly so
states. It is the legal responsibility of the seller to archive an
encryption of each transaction document for safekeeping, in at least
one physically separate facility. The seller must keep a transaction
document until the corresponding PDDW item has been destroyed, or upon
the death, irreversible incapacitation, or disqualification of the
seller as detailed below. Decryption of stored and archived
transaction documents must be feasible only by the seller and by
whatever agent the seller has designated for transfer of transaction
documents upon death or irreversible incapacitation as detailed below.
In encrypted form, the transaction document must not reveal any
information about the time and place of the transaction, the identity
and characteristics of the PDDW item, or the recipient of the PDDW
item.
Neither a court nor any other organ of the state can demand or accept
the contents of a PDDW item transaction document unless the
corresponding PDDW item is believed to have been used in the
commission of a crime, or to have been transferred to an individual
whose PDDW license is suspended or revoked. In particular, those
contents can only be demanded if a PDDW item forensic signature
determined in a criminal investigation matches one or more PDDW item
forensic signatures in a manufacturer's database. The state can
submit a forensic signature believed to be associated with the
commission of a crime to any PDDW manufacturer, who must inform the
state of the serial number or numbers associated with any entries in
its forensic database that match the forensic profile. The chain of
custody is determined based on the candidate serial identifer(s),
sequentially, beginning with the manufacturer. Any such demand must
identify the desired transaction document with a single serial
identifier, and no further information. The contents can only be
accepted if they were lawfully demanded, or if a serial identifier or
set thereof, identified as required to render demand legitimate, is
published in an anonymously accessible forum of automated
distribution, or if a license is suspended or revoked, and a citizen
volunteers a decrypted transaction document for a matching PDDW item.
The state must electronically announce all suspensions and revocations
of PDDW licenses, and the serial identifiers of all PDDW items used in
crimes, such that the public at large is alerted in a timely manner.
All such announcements must include the nature, time, and place, of
the crime which prompted the announcement. All individuals who have
sold a PDDW item must examine all their transaction documents at least
once a month, and supply the state with decryptions of all documents
for transactions which involve the transfer of a PDDW item to an
individual whose PDDW license is suspended or revoked, or the transfer
of a PDDW item which has been used in a crime. The state must destroy
any record of the unencrypted contents of PDDW item transaction
documents within three months of obtaining them.
Upon the death, irreversible mental incapacitation, or
disqualification from ownership of a PDDW, of an individual who has
sold one or more PDDW items, each transaction record must be delivered
in readable form by a designated agent to the most recent prior
custodian who is either an individual still alive and mentally
capable, or a still-active incorporated entity, except that if a
vigilant search for such a prior custodian fails to locate any, or
reveals that none are still extant and qualified, then the designated
agent becomes the new custodian of that transaction record, and must
submit to the state the serial identifiers contained in that
transaction record, in documents he has cryptographically signed.
In order that the actions described in the previous paragraph can be
taken, it is the responsibility of the seller to arrange for the
accessibility of his record database by designating and enlisting an
agent capable of decrypting stored and archived transaction records,
and contractually charged with the obligation of seeing to the
transfer of these records as detailed above. This agent cannot be
part of the state, cannot be an incorporated entity, must be a
resident of the same county as the seller, must not be disqualified
from holding a PDDW license, and must not obtain any of the seller's
transaction records prior to the death or irreversible incapacitation
of the seller. Except on the occasion that the agent becomes the
custodian of the transaction record as explained in the previous
paragraph, he must not observe or otherwise examine any portion of the
contents of each transaction record except for the pre-transaction
chain of custody recorded therein, and must destroy any transaction
records he obtains in the course of fulfilling his above-described
obligation once he has fulfilled that obligation. The new custodian
of a transaction record must attend to the same array of
responsibilities that a seller must, including proper off-premises
archiving, and designation and enlistment of an agent capable of
fulfilling the obligations described in this and the previous
paragraph.
The deliberate divulgence of a transaction record contrary to the
terms of this section is a minor crime.
Except where the immediate military dictates of physical national
defense require it, no heavy PDDW can be exported. In particular, no
weapon designed to disable vehicles (cars, trucks, planes, trains,
boats, etc) or to destroy buildings, or to kill more than one person
at a time, or to kill a person in such a way that the weapon need not
be tended by an operator, and based on explosives, projectiles,
combustion, directed energy (EM or particulate radiation of a nature
and intensity sufficient to injure or kill a healthy full-grown person
through its direct, immediate or eventual effects, except that
potential injury to eyes cannot be considered), or toxins, must not be
exported except under the above-described exceptional circumstance.
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This is a preliminary draft. Pending changes are in The To-Do List