THINK THE GUN LOBBY IS NOT ENCROACHING ON YOUR RIGHT TO BE PROTECTED? THINK AGAIN.

 

photo: D. McCOLLESTER

In the wake of such tragedy as the Boston's massacre, one would be inclined to think that the FBI and other investigative agencies could have access to anything they wanted.  But those who believe in the lore of big brother's never ending reach, should instead realize that big corporations have so much sway that even the most important investigation of the year, or decade, does not afford investigators total access to vital information.

In what is now highlighted by news media as the overreach of the NRA and the gun lobby, news are surfacing that a little known, and successful, effort by the NRA and gun lobby in the past to exclude gunpowder from a list of substances, such as explosives, from being chemically 'tagged' is creating a considerable stumbling block for the researchers of the bombing.  

Such tags, or taggants, would offer vital clues on the origin of the gunpowder used in the bombing and possibly the chain of custody as law enforcement calls it, that can lead investigator to discover its movement from manufacturer to end user.

But this information will never be known to the FBI, or ATF or anyone for that matter.  Because gunpowder was excluded from the list of compounds that require taggants required by the government.  The gunpowder therefore cannot be traced, leaving investigators with far less tools to identify the perpetrators than they would have if such exclusion did not exist. 

Some pundits say that the gun manufacturers have imposed such restrictions on taggants because they are concerned of tort liability.  

Many also reacted to the news of the absence of taggant tracers by saying that if gunpowder had been included in the list of tagged compounds, that this could become a form of weapons registration, something that pro gun supporters see as anathema.  

The NRA has also insinuated that the use of taggants could affect the performance and trajectory of bullets.  In fact the NRA successfully lobbied against taggants for gunpowder twice already. Once after the terrorist acts of the Weather Underground and a second time when action was called after the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993.  

Source: MSNBC 4.18.13