I think it was in the Winter of 1977; I was a second-year medical student at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. My classmates and I signed our names with the title MS-II or perhaps MS-2 in our patients’ charts. I was on my Internal Medicine rotation – the rotation that would explain my clinical future to me.
I remember my second-year resident, Sergio, sending me to the ER late one night to evaluate a patient for possible admission. I think this individual had a septic knee joint. “Before you make a decision about this guy, be sure to ask him if he has tattoos,” Sergio admonished me. Tattoos were a reason for special examination. Anything that looked military – a globe with an Eagle and/or anchors, for example, identified the potential admission as a US Marine or maybe Naval Veteran. My medical service was in a county hospital for indigents and the poor (Medicare and Medicaid recipients). The medical center of which we were part, had a fully funded VA Hospital. It was old and inadequately funded, but I suspect that many other VA hospitals were in the same condition during those years.
The military tattoos were an identifying mark. You are likely aware that many folks sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp were tattooed on the left arm or chest. These were identifying marks meant as much to track individuals as to dehumanize them. We humans have a terrible capacity for savage cruelty.
My friends from the world of law enforcement also know about identifying marks – tattoos, scars, birthmarks, and physical deformities that serve as distinguishing features that can identify a suspect as well as eliminate an innocent by their absence.
Devices too have identifying marks. We have consciously decided to add them so that we can track them when they are stolen or perhaps used to commit crimes. Cars and trucks have them. The VIN, for instance, is a law enforcement identifying mark. A vehicle’s VIN appears in a variety of places – not just on the driver’s side dashboard. It appears in the driver’s side door well, on the engine and transaxle, and in other places that I do not know. As Bones McCoy might have said, “Dammit man, I’m a doctor not a lawman.”
Susan’s 2007 Subaru Legacy was the subject of a Takata airbag recall a few years ago. She took her car to the Subaru dealership, and the required remediation was performed. Unfortunately, the tech who did the work wound up destroying the dashboard. I hate it when that happens. Subaru ordered a new dash (no charge) and installed it. Everything was cool except that it wasn’t.
Years later, Susan decided that she would swap cars with our son whose Subaru Impreza has several times as many miles as the Legacy. She drove her car to Omaha to execute the trade, and the transaction was aborted because the VIN on the dash was absent. The person who replaced the damaged dash did not transfer the VIN tag to the new dashboard. Shit! So, Susan is working through the bureaucracy to get a new dash VIN so that she can transfer this car to our son.
This brings me to guns. You knew I was headed there. We tag firearms with identifying marks for much the same reason as we tag vehicles – to identify those that have been stolen as well as those that have been used to commit crimes. It bugs me just a bit that it is easier to produce and sell an unmarked firearm than a VIN-deficient vehicle.
I think that we should care more about firearm identification than about old automobiles.