this is the bullet
the rest is the cartridge or shell
You keep track of who purchases the ammo, find the serial number at a crime scene, and voila' you have the killer.
OK is isn't that simple but it could be. That's what computers are for. If Benetton can track individual sweaters [1], then the cops can track individual bullets. You make the last registered owner of a bullet an accessory to murder and people will keep track.
Who could object to that? Oh, yeah, I forgot the NRA - it will make bullets too expensive.
I've hunted moose in Alaska and I know that the cost of ammo is minimal compared with everything else. Sure, a machine gun will go through a lot of ammo but real hunters don't hunt with machine guns.
There's a comedy bit by Chris Rock? about making bullets cost $1000 so you had to be really mad at someone to spend that much money. My cousin, an Admiral in the Royal Navy, told me that English criminals can get guns for relatively cheap - they have to rent them sort of - but if you fire the weapon, the price goes wayyyy up. So maybe making bullets more expensive isn't a bad way to go - especially if it makes finding murderers cheaper.
Seattle has proposed a $25 tax on each weapon sold in the city and five cents ($.05) tax per bullet[2]. This has prompted lawsuits [3] as you would expect. So my point is that adding serial numbers to bullets is not the panacea I thought at first. It IS one more way to pin crimes on criminals. I'm not sure how much of a deterrent it will be.
I wasn't the first person to think of bullet serial numbers. I found this site that talks about a bunch of ways to have guns and ammo responsibly[4].
[1] http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?344
[2] www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-to-add-tax-on-gun-ammunition-sales/
[3] www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/gun-rights-groups-sue-to-block-2-new-seattle-gun-laws/
[4]smartgunlaws.org/ammunition-regulation-policy-summary/
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