Posted on 09/28/2008 10:13:24 PM PDT by MtnClimber
ALBANY, N.Y.—New York's 7-year-old database of handgun "fingerprints" has yet to lead to a criminal prosecution, and questions linger about its effectiveness. Still, state police remain committed to the database, saying more time and a long-awaited link to a federal ballistics database could bring success. Since March 2001, identifying information about more than 200,000 new pistols and revolvers sold in New York have been entered into the Combined Ballistic Identification System database maintained by state police. New York and Maryland are the only two states that maintain statewide databases.
New guns are test fired, and the minute markings the guns make on the shell casings are recorded and entered into the digital database.
Proponents say the markings are as unique as fingerprints and can be compared against shell casings found at crime scenes. The results as of August: 209,239 casings entered into New York's database, 7,124 inquiries and two hits.
Both hits were several years ago and involve separate crimes in Rochester—a drive-by shooting that resulted in an injury and an incident involving shots fired—and neither resulted in a prosecution, according to state and Rochester city police.
Gun advocates, who have opposed the database from the get-go as unworkable, claim the lack of results is evidence of the system's failure. They contend that a gun's "fingerprints" can be changed easily by taking a file to the breech face. Tom King, president of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, said the state would be better served by spending the money for the database—which police say costs about $1 million a year—on more police.
"We don't have to be throwing millions of dollars into a program that doesn't work," he said.
State police disagree.
If a gun owner buys a replacement barrel do they then have to show up at the police station to have them fingerprint the new barrel?
Imagine that; law abiding gun owners don’t commit gun crimes. Who would have ever thought it?
That's a longer version of the story. I would have posted it as frontpage news, not chat. This is a major flop as well as infringement of Second Amendment rights. They didn't mention that Maryland stopped funding its "ballistics fingerprinting" program.
State Supreme Court Won't Hear Murder Appeal on Bullet Evidence
His attorneys have said they have two new pieces of evidence to help exonerate Hunt, including the credibility of an FBI analysis that matched bullets found at the crime scene to those in a box Hunt owned. Last year, "60 Minutes" reported that scientists now believe that kind of analysis is misleading and should not be considered at trial.
It was the only physical evidence connecting Hunt to the deaths.
Hunt attorney Richard Rosen also said that the attorney for Hunt's co-defendant said his client – who committed suicide in prison – confessed to being the sole killer. Attorney Staples Hughes represented co-defendant Jerry Dale Cashwell.
Hughes, who put his law license in jeopardy by revealing the information, said Cashwell told him in 1985 that he alone killed the Matthewses. Hughes came forward after Cashwell's death.
Data Integrity and the Scientific Method: the Case of Bullet Lead Data as Forensic Evidence
Though the statistical principles for analyzing data from CABL are fairly straightforward (apart from choices of methods to estimate error variances, account for multiplicity, etc.), insuf- ficient data were available to charac- terize within-batch and between-batch variability, which likely depended on manufacturer, caliber, origin, etc. The statistical analyses in the NRC report indicated within-batch variability appeared to be less than the FBI crime laboratory’s ability to measure it (mea- surement uncertainty) and often sub- stantially less than the between-batch variability (though not always due to the “continuous stream of lead pours” in manufacturing bullets).
I guess they haven’t realized this is useless against revolvers.
Man, how I wish some of our stupid laws would be repealed.
NRA, where are you? I’m ready if you’re willing.
no wonder FR runs so slowly at times...need bigger FReepathons I suppose.../s
LFOD...
just a way of squirrlin a million away for new ninja stuff, thats all...
Anybody, state police included. that has any mechanical or firearms knowledge knows this is a 'shell' game...
I hope it costs these gun grabbers BILLIONS to operate !
It is worth that in promoting a crusade against the seditious polidiots and presstitutes and their money handlers .....Of course taxpayers are being ripped off to pay for their games for the most part IMO.
Doom on em !
either way, EVERY dollar flushed down this sh!thole is a loss for freedom and a gain for socialism...my.02
It’s about right when ya consider that they want a link to alphabet agencies nation wide etc and created a separate facility to house and operate it . Consider the janitors, the costs for such infrastructure and just a dozen employees, a few supervisors with state vehicles, fuel , power, structure, grounds, paving the parking lot, paper towels, toilet paper, expendable spares, insurance, HMO, & retirement plans for the human element, security, electric bill, HVAC, etc .......million dollars a year is a cheap deal for any goobermint be they conservative or socialist.
We ALL know the ONLY reason for the gun database - and it ISN’T for solving crimes.
It’s for “Der Tag” (”The Day”) and they’re compiling it for THAT reason and THAT reason only.
Let’s take the happy-happy-joy-joy smiley faces off of it and call it what it is - IT’S A LIST OF LAW ABIDING GUN OWNERS, THEIR RESIDENCES, AND WHAT THEY HAVE for a heads-up to the JBTs.
Just like they did in Germany post WW1, just like Russia, just like Venezuela (right now), England, etc., and every other socialist country (like we’re becoming). I bet if we also looked hard enough at newspaper headlines from those countries during their gun round-ups, we’d find a sudden RASH of “police shootings”, a sudden “rise in violent GUN crime”, and other “massacres” preceeding the confiscations.
Let’s hope we’re made of sterner stuff. And let’s hope that the ordinary Joe LEO has more brains than to obey an ILLEGAL, UNCONSTITUTIONAL ORDER that’s going to get people killed really, really dead...
But judging from some of the debates I’ve had out here, trying to explain the concept of “Citizen” to a LEO, I doubt it.
When the other side calls it a “Valuable Law-Enforcement Tool” WE respond with “No, IT’S A LIST OF LAW ABIDING GUN OWNERS, THEIR RESIDENCES, AND WHAT THEY HAVE. And just HOW does that solve crimes??? Prevent murders? Stop gangstas and thugs from getting guns???”
Words MEAN things.
The duplicity of these people disgusts me.
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