Posted on 10/11/2002 8:05:05 AM PDT by white trash redneck
If the United States had a federal law requiring so-called "ballistic fingerprinting" of every firearm in the country, could police have already caught the murderer coming to be known as the "Beltway sniper?"
That is the assertion in a message sent to supporters of the group formerly known as Handgun Control, Inc.
"As police try to track down and stop this killer, we do know this: sensible gun laws can help law enforcement solve crimes as well as prevent gun violence," wrote Sarah Brady, chairwoman of the Brady Campaign.
Brady noted that ballistic comparisons of the bullets recovered from the victims' bodies had helped authorities link several of the shootings.
"[But] we have also seen the limitations to ballistic fingerprinting laws in their current form," she continued, complaining that the laws are only in force in two states, only cover newly purchased weapons, and only apply to handguns.
"These limitations speak to a need for a national ballistics fingerprinting law for all firearms," Brady argued.
She also used the letter to begin lobbying for a continuation of the federal ban on certain types of military-looking firearms, commonly referred to by opponents of their ownership as "assault weapons," and to solicit funds for her organization.
Americans for Gun Safety (AGS), a group founded by former Handgun Control, Inc. board member Andrew McKelvey, also supports universal ballistic fingerprinting. Matt Bennett, spokesman for the group, said the idea behind the process is similar to that of fingerprinting.
"A particular set of markings [on a bullet] can be matched to all the other [ballistic records] in the system and the top five or six matches come up and then a human expert will look at them and determine if there's a real match," he explained.
AGS argues that the system is accurate even if someone intentionally tries to alter a weapon, or subjects it to heavy use.
"It can degrade slightly, but it is still recognizable," Bennett claimed. "The metaphor we're using is it's like having a scratch on a record. It does degrade the quality of the sound, but it's still a recognizable sound."
Kevin Watson, legislative director for the Law Enforcement Alliance of America (LEAA) - a coalition of current and former law enforcement officers and citizen supporters - disagrees.
"It sounds really neat when you hear just the basic description of it, but when you go into the description of how it would actually work," he said, "it kind of falls apart."
Watson said the "ballistic fingerprint" of a weapon will change over time, and can be altered intentionally.
"In a lot of firearms, you can replace the equipment that leaves these marks," he said, "and, as the firearm is used on occasion, that degrades the marks that are left and sometimes can change them."
Watson described the lack of a basis for comparing ballistic markings to human fingerprints.
"Imagine a fingerprint database where people can switch their fingerprints and their own fingerprints wear down over time after use," he added. "It makes it not that useful of a system."
Attorney Lisa Steele, who specializes in appellate criminal defense cases, agreed. She said it would be relatively easy for a ballistics examiner to make a mistake.
"A recovered bullet has been through a lot. It's gone down a gun barrel, it's been fired into something. It's chipped. It's damaged. It's fragmented," Steele explained.
She said examiners are trained to expect some of the marking on two bullets fired from the same weapon not to match. They are also told, Steele said, to expect many markings to match on two bullets fired from two different weapons of the same caliber and model.
"They're trained to do this. They observe this in the lab," she said. "What the training standards say is, eventually you develop a 'gut instinct' for which of these striation matches are important and which of them aren't."
Steele calls the phenomenon of seeing matches that don't really exist "suggestion bias," explaining that the examiners are not intentionally giving false reports, they simply "expect to confirm what they already believe."
Investigators can also bias ballistics examiners, she claimed, by sharing too much information about a case or the evidence being examined.
"You know some things won't match. You know some things will. You have to make a 'gut,' instinctive decision, and in the back of your head, somebody has given you information that it's supposed to match," Steele said. "Odds are, you're going to say it does match."
The biggest part of the problem, she added, is that unlike classifying human fingerprints, there is no objective reference standard for ballistic "signatures.
Images of human fingerprints can be laid one on top of the other and the number of points of similarity can be counted, Steele explained. In most jurisdictions, criminal judges have established the minimum number of points of similarity that they will accept to validate a fingerprint match.
"There's no such objective measure for ballistic fingerprints," she said.
Watson said another failing of ballistic fingerprints opponents of armed self-defense often ignore is the sheer number of firearms already in private hands in the United States.
"If you were just to do new firearms, that basically means that there would be 200 million firearms that would not be traceable in this system," he explained. "Any criminal would know or would learn that if they wanted to make sure their gun was not traceable in the new system, they would simple make sure they were using a gun that was made before the enactment of the system."
Watson speculated that law-abiding gun owners might not be willing to bring their weapons in for ballistic fingerprinting because of the de facto registration of gun owners such a system would create.
He also disputed Brady's claim that the so-called "assault weapons" ban - which actually banned military-looking semi-automatic firearms, not fully-automatic assault weapons - could have had any effect on the sniper's armament.
"They could be using a gun that they could lawfully purchase today in Maryland, even if the 'assault weapons' ban is in place or renewed," Watson argued. "The notion that, if we renew this ban then we'll somehow pretend to keep certain guns off the street is really kind of nonsense."
Brady's attempt to capitalize on the murders to promote her anti-Second Amendment agenda is "quite honestly shameless," Watson said, especially while police are still looking for the sniper.
"This is a group that, every time tragedy happens, they jump out and say 'We need these [gun control laws] we need these," he alleged. "It's not really all that surprising to see it happen, but it's still shameless."
The premise that a gun control law could somehow affect the behavior of a murderer is puzzling to Watson.
"It's just a nonsense comment to say that somebody is going to break the law about murder, but obey the law about which tools they can use," he said. "It's pretty obvious that people who are not influenced by laws banning murder aren't going to be too influenced by laws banning what tools of murder they can use."
Both Watson and Steele believe that, once a suspect is in custody and ballistics examiners can compare his or her weapon to the bullets and shell casings recovered at the crime scenes, authorities will be able to use that evidence to aid in obtaining a conviction.
If they are they shouldn't be!
No problem (for the gun grabbers). The simply pass a law forcing all FFL holders to turn over their Form 4473's and then a law to attempt to force all gunowners to bring their guns in for "fingerprinting". While you are at it, you can leave a DNA sample for the police.
Please, the people who commit murder should be coddled and given therapy to get over how their mommy and daddy were mean to them when they were 12. You're also totally discounting the intrinsic psychic powers of firearms, knives and other weapons. They make people just go nuts or think they're cowboys and start shooting or stabbing. /endsarcasm
These stories are typically reported by bubble-headed infobabes who have never even handled a weapon, let alone FIRED one. And an equally ignorant public buys this crap!
If you're going to take ONE SHOT, the weapon of choice is a scoped bolt action rifle with a heavy competition barrel, NOT the nasty looking assault rifle designed for rapid-fire combat situations.
HERE'S ONE SOLUTION! Hey, it worked for Adolph!!
Concerned about the easy availability of guns in our society?
Alarmed about the "gun nuts" and other freedom wackos the government allows to run loose?
Wish the government would just repeal the Second Amendment and confiscate all the guns because you believe sensible people shouldn't suffer because of some idiotic notion about some antiquated “right?”
While we can't take the guns away from the people, we CAN take the people (or at least SOME of them) away from their guns.
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Darn! Didja hafta tellem the truth??
STOP giving them ideas!
Damn, at this rate, the Crime Bill will not only be renewed, it will be altered to flat out ban the items that it affected the manufacture of the first time.
This is the cutest vest I've seen: 
-Since that isn't working so well, maybe we should make murder doubly illegal. With two laws for the same crime, no one will be murdered.
When we have the same situation here that they now have in the UK. People like Sarah Brady and McKelvey won't be satisfied until we are in the same boat as the Brits. Total ban on all handguns, and such severe restrictions on long guns that most hunters and target shooters over there are getting rid of their sporting firearms because keeping them isn't worth the expense and hassle. I understand there are some real bargains available over there on fine high-grade English shotguns and rifles.
"IMHO, the Anthrax mailings are far more likely to be the handiwork of the anti-American Leftists who make up the Enviro-Whacko Community, including the Effete Elite who comprise the Tenured Class within our American Universities!!!....Yes, my Wise FRiend, I said the Leftists in the Environmental Movement have got to be the Number One Suspects in the ongoing Domestic Terrorism Movement...please allow me explain!! You have always said that Lib'rals are the most hilarious when they are outta Power because they go absolutely crazy and yet can do no damage to this Country. Well, THE LEFT IS MOST DEFINITELY OUT OF POWER and it's driving them to measures that would have been unthinkable just six weeks ago. How do you think the Left feels when they read about Dubyuh's 89%+ Approval Ratings?! Well, on the DemocRATic Underground website, they are going absolutely NUTS!! Dick Cheney is well-advised to be making himself scarce with these deranged LeftistLoonies on the loose...THEY HATE US WITH A PASSION that they could never muster for Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein!!!"
Watch for this guy to be killed authorities in the next few days, but a suicide note will reveal him to be a DemonRAT Sympathizer!!
SITYS...MUD
The ship of dreams has already left port and moved to a point beyond the horizon where reality is no longer visible even in the distance.
Article is meaningless. Headline says it all. But to be most accurate and save newspaper space, the headline should read...
Everything Prompts Calls for More Gun Control
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