It’s a small idea. Admittedly so small that even its backers use the prefix “micro-” in describing it.

But if it helps cut down on the incidents of gun violence in the mean streets of Buffalo, New York City and other parts of the state, it is a good idea nevertheless.

An idea now moving through the New York Legislature, with the enthusiastic backing of many of the state’s mayors and law enforcement agencies, would require that to be legal in New York, semiautomatic pistols manufactured after Jan. 1, 2011, would have to include a technology called micro-stamping.

That’s a process that, as a round is fired, stamps every shell casing with small marks that will allow investigators to trace the weapon that fired it. And identifying the gun can, at least part of the time, help police to identify the shooter.

The law would not apply to rifles and other long guns, as they are seldom used in crimes. And it would not apply to revolvers, because they don’t generally leave casings scattered about the way semiautomatic weapons do.

Mandating the technology would not result in an end to gun crime. It would be one tool in the kit of our outmanned and outgunned law enforcement agencies, generally more accurate than current methods of weapons-tracing that are as much an art as a science, helping both to locate the guilty and exonerate the innocent.

And, despite the predictable squawks of the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights absolutists, it is a man-date that would no more endanger the rights of law-abiding gun owners than the current practice of stamping serial numbers on automobile engines impedes the freedoms of law-abiding drivers.

People who want guns to defend themselves, their homes and their businesses could still buy them. If they were offended by the idea that their personal weapons had some kind of government-imposed number of the beast on them, they could just choose from among the kinds of firearms that aren’t covered, such as shotguns or revolvers, which are wholly sufficient for anyone who isn’t planning to engage in a prolonged firefight.

In other words, microstamping might not catch that many criminals. But it would catch only criminals.

The Assembly version of the bill—A6468—passed that house last month. The Senate version—S6005—is making its way to the floor. It is legislation that deserves to pass.