Carrington Payne and Funches are still "tweaking" what they would like included in a law to that effect. At the moment, they envision requirements that every bullet sold in the state be encoded and that buyers have a gun permit, be at least 18, and have a driver's license.
They even have a name for their proposal: Carla's Law, after Carrington Payne's 17-year-old daughter, who was killed in 1988 by a stray bullet fired during a nearby gang fight.
Five teenagers were found guilty of aggravated assault in Carrington's death and received stiff prison sentences, but the person who fired the bullet that felled the Chester High School cheerleader was never identified.
Carrington Payne, with Funches, decided to keep her daughter's memory alive through community action. They have met with Chester Mayor Wendell Butler and Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware) to see what could be done.
"Anything we can do to deter the acts of violence in cities, we should all embrace that," said Butler, who backs the women's efforts.
Erik Arneson, a spokesman for Pileggi, said the "concept deserves to have a hearing and deserves consideration."
The notion of encoding ammunition is not new.
Eighteen states - including Pennsylvania and New Jersey - have introduced legislation for marking ammunition. None of the bills has passed.
Pennsylvania Democrats introduced a bill in the House to encode ammunition in 2008.
The bill never got out of committee.
Former Gov. Ed Rendell, a longtime supporter of gun control, says he backs any efforts to enhance law enforcement's ability to track down and successfully prosecute people who use guns to commit crimes.
"If this technology is real, it should be put to the legislature and passed immediately," Rendell said.
The technology does exist.
