Sniper Attacks Lead Congress To Push 'Fingerprinting' Guns

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Monday, October 14, 2002 | GARY FIELDS and NICHOLAS KULISH

[TroutStalker]

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers have launched a new push to pass firearms "fingerprinting" legislation following a rash of unsolved sniper shootings that has terrorized the capital's suburbs, but the gun lobby continues to resist the proposal as a back-door form of gun registration.

[ladyinred]

Well we knew this was coming didn't we?
How much you want to bet the same lefties will be screaming to be lenient on the sniper(s) when he/they are caught? It will be the NRA's fault, or Bush's fault, any right winger but the sniper!

[sharktrager]

Stupid plan. All a criminal has to do is either scrape the barrel enough to change the signature, or change the barrel.

You could swap barrels on a pair of rifles, and sell one at a pawn shop using a fake name. The unsuspecting buyer would find the FBI on his doorstep after they matched the bullets, and the seller of the gun could be untraceable, because he could use a false name and address, and the time from pawning to sale would be long enough that the pawn shop would have little or no memory of who sold it.

[Puppage]

Yet,ANOTHER "Feel Good" law they're trying to pass. Let's not mention the fact that not ONE crime has EVER been solved by ballistic fingerprinting. And, it won't work on shot guns, so what's the point? Besides, everyone knows that before the invention of gunpowder, the world was just one big happy family. Caesar killed the ancient world with kindess anyway, right? Not a sniper rifle in the bunch.

[dd5339]

What I'm waiting to see is for some idiot politician to put together a bill to ban ALL sniper rifles. The definition of a sniper rifle will probably read something like this;

Any high or medium power rifle capable of being equipped with an optical sight.

This would mean any rifle from the Civil War to current production.

Afterall, it would be done to stop these violent attacks and to protect the children. (/sarcasm)

Semper Fi

[Centurion2000]

Stupid plan. All a criminal has to do is either scrape the barrel enough to change the signature, or change the barrel

Every time you punch the bore with a wire brush the fingerprint will change.

You can generally fingerprint a handgun. Going on what I have learned, the rifle round's velocity and rotation speed will usually destroy the bullet enough that it can't be matched. Exception : solids designed for big game generally do not come apart.
The way around this ? Use ultra-light ultra velocity hollow points on a barrel with a fast twist.

[harpseal]

They know it will not work to solkve crime but they think they can put through national gun registration in this disguise. Look at what happened with the instant background check records and the fuss they made of ashcrof's decision to cut the number of days they are kept. The Nazis like Schummer Scummer and Kennedy were complaining about records going away according to the text of the law. Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown

[RAT Patrol]

Heck, how about just register everyone's DNA at birth. (/digusting sarcasm)

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Why not spend the $20 million on better long term care for obvious nut cases like this sniper ?
$10 says he was hospitalized at some point, but since the liberal "outing" of insane asylums in the 1960's, he was released back into society.

[SLB]

This is one reason a strong lobby effort must be maintained in congress. If the guard is let down for even one session, the anit-gun lobby will see the weakness and exploit it immediately with disastrous results. It doesn't matter which you contribute to, just do it.

IMHO the NRA is the largest, but probably a little more easily waffled in the position it takes. GOA is more hard line, which might be better. It depends on which issues are coming to the plate - guess I sound like the NRA on that. Maybe stil having Moses as the chief spokesman has something to do with that.

[coloradan]

To address gun-rights advocates' concerns that such a network could violate laws prohibiting the government from keeping gun-owner registration lists, the bill says the information could be used only to investigate crimes and not to keep tabs on law-abiding owners of firearms.

It could be but it won't be used in this way.

[coloradan]

The computer system operated by federal authorities, as of Aug. 31, contained 867,082 digitized images, primarily from ballistic evidence culled from crime scenes. So far, the more than 200 state, local and federal crime laboratories that use the system have gotten 12,000 "hits," or matches. The legislation Congress is considering would expand this database beyond guns known to have been used in a crime, to cover all newly manufactured firearms sold in the U.S.

How many cases have been solved solely because of ballistic fingerprinting? Zero. Yet another federal boondoggle.

[Joe Brower]

I agree. And the fact that those of us who still know what it means to be free Americans are attacked daily on several fronts is why we must maintain various types of defense on several fronts.

Joe Brower, member NRA, GOA, JPGO, GOC, CRPA, COA (and maybe a few I've missed!).

[umgud]

This isn't about figerprinting firearms, which will work in some cases. This is about identifying gun owners. As to barrel changes, I'm sure that they'll add language either forbidding this or require 10 waiting periods and new registration of new or used barrels. And, require that all existing firearms and all extra barrels be taken to an approved facility to have their barrels fingerprinted.

[longtermmemmory]

and a 50 cent file will alter any result. Even regular maintenance will change the result. Or break appart bullets.

This is feeeeeel gooooood legislation again.

perhaps fewer press conferences and more actual, QUALIFIED, detective work. perhaps the media should be examining the qualifications of the investigators.

How long di it take to catch the unibomber?

[longtermmemmory]

This is a good argument to end divided government. Get the democrat wackos away from power.

[syriacus]

I think we should be fingerprinting gas station employees. To me, they are the prime suspects. (As accomplices, anyway.)

[from occupied ga]

This is just another ploy by the anti-gunners to register firearms so that they can confiscate them later. Think about it. If you have a "signature" (ignoring the fact that this is total and absolute BS, but anti-gunners will always ignore the facts anyway) it doesn't do you any good unless you have a list of the owner of the gun; hence gun owner registration.

[ampat]

Isn't that similar to the social security argument made at the time? Now you can't do some things without disclosing it.

[upchuck]

The computer system operated by federal authorities, as of Aug. 31, contained 867,082 digitized images, primarily from ballistic evidence culled from crime scenes. So far, the more than 200 state, local and federal crime laboratories that use the system have gotten 12,000 "hits," or matches.

Damned liberal press. How many of these hits have resulted in an arrest? And how many of the arrests have turned into convictions?

How convenient to omit this critical information. SLIMES!!