The Gun Fear Factor: The Beltway sniper is no reason to target guns.

Wall St Journal ^ | October 17, 2002

[SJackson]

The only thing worse than a horror like the Washington, D.C., sniper attacks is the way some politicians seem prepared to exploit them. The shootings are being used as one more argument for gun control, so we guess someone has to explain one more time why this would make no difference.

[Joe Brower]

[Puppage]

More than 17,000 shell casings have been compiled over the past two years, producing just two matches and no convictions.The law has yet to prevent or solve a single crime.

Oh, but we have to do SOMETHING! So, remember...when your cat pisses on the carpet make sure to kick your dog. It won't help, but you'll be doing SOMETHING.

[zx2dragon]

Maryland Refused To Help FBI in Criminal Background Gun Checks

[randita]

The police recovered a shell casing close to the school where the 13 year old boy was shot. That shell casing was probably there for years, but if that casing had been "fingerprinted", some innocent person target shooting years ago might find him/herself the prime suspect in this case.

This is a stupid solution ad is being demogogued by liberals as yet another step toward the confiscation of all firearms from U.S. citizens.

[longtermmemmory]

Sadly even Fox News shows a picture of an ar15 graphic when discussing the story. The correct graphic should be the 223 bullet. The police have no clue as to the type of rifle or pistol being used. Leftist feel good-ism is driving the illogical blame someone/thing.

Perhaps human sacrafices will make the bad spirits go away.

[jjm2111]

Most newsies don't understand the first thing about guns.

BTTT

[ko_kyi]

When talking about this with gun-fearing coworkers I point out that the technology to do this exact crime has existed since the Civil War. I point out that ballistic fingerprinting isn't exact, hasn't stopped crimes, and is an easy way to compile lists of lawful gun owners.

They don't care. They would rather kick their dog.

[harpseal]

When the Black Death was sweeping accross Europe there was a percieved need to do something in many places where the Plague had not yet broken out. The chosen something was usually the extermination of the domestic dog and cat populations. The result was an increase in the rat population which increased theseverity of the plague outbreak.

Sorta like when your cat urinates on the carpet you kick your dog so hard he defecates on the carpet.

Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown

[Puppage]

Yeah, it's the same in my office, too. When I tell them that the world was such a wonderful & peaceful place before the advent of gun powder,they run off in a huff. Besides, everyone knows that Caesar took over most of Europe with feathers, and funny jokes. So much for facts accounting for anything.

[tubebender]

BUMP...

[Blood of Tyrants]

Fingerprinting and DNA sampling of every person in the U.S. would also help the police to solve many crimes.

[joesnuffy]

They got a spent 223 case...given the extractor, ejector, and firing pin marks what have they trufully ascertained?...that it was for a FACT fired from an AR15 type rifle?....NO this is conjecture..and used by the blatantly biased anti self protection leftist media...

They also have bullet fragments...do they have enough of a bullets base left to match the one bullet up with the spent case?....dont know for sure...if they do they havent announced it.

Only the one bullet recovered from the victim at the scene where the spent case was found could be used..unless the killer(s) recovered a spent case from another of their crime scenes and planted it there...which would make no sense...

It is reasonable to assume that the recovered case may be a plant ..recovered from a rifle range...Millions of people shoot at ranges and those who dont reload often leave their brass on the ground for others to pick up...either range custodians or the public...with finger prints on it.
If there are multiple weapons used of the same caliber this adds to the confusion...

Also the bullet type with the 223 caliber designation may be loaded into several different caliber cases.. 22-250 for example.
.
Hopefully the authorities were able to match the recovered bullet to the case...
but they must have a rifle to be sure..and one that hasnt been altered..in the mean time..

Ballistic fingerprinting is a useless idea...one that will cost billions of tax payer dollars..
and produce nothing...it is feel good legislation...a totally vain attempt at closing the barn door after the horses ran off..an in this case isnt even closing the barn door.

.It is a great public relations ploy on behalf of the politics of fear mongering the left has used before...

It is Ed Asner scaring the crap out of the elderly saying the Repubs are going to throw them out in the cold and pocket their social security checks...

This ballistic fingerprinting is ad hoc gun registration leading to confiscation once it is enacted, the right leader will come along and use it that way...

In this same way the RICO statutes passed to go after organized crime...were used to prosecute pro life people...

And when the left finally realizes that they are the only ones who can protect their families and its unreasonable to expect police and troops to do it.. they are going to need to learn how to use firearms ...Firearms will (by the time they wake up) be made illegal and they will be impotent to protect their loved ones... their loved ones will be sacrificed to criminals and terrorists..like herds of antelope or Reindeer wating to try to outrun the wolves..hoping they get someone else..the lottery you dont want to win...

What a world to leave our children...as we deliver them into slavery and moral poverty.

[Man of the Right]

The issue's gonna work against Townsend even in the People's Republic of Maryland.

The Brady anti-gun hysteria has peaked and begun to recede.

The DC sniper shootings have illustrated this is a really effective, low-risk, low-cost form of terrorism. We can expect every city large enough to have a McDonald's to have its own terrorist sniper team. Unfortunately, the police have proven to be totally ineffectual.

Also, North Korea has never had a weapon it ever developed that it hasn't sold for cash. It's hard to believe nuclear weapons will be any exception, bringing the day of nuclear devastation much closer to the U.S.

Increasingly, communities and families are going to have to rely on themselves for their personal security. That's becoming obvious to independent voters.

[ko_kyi]

You know, I once was fairly anti-handgun but after I read a little more I learned how the "facts" I thought I knew were completely wrong. I am now an avid shooter and 2nd Amendment supporter.

I am pretty stubborn too, so if it could happen to me it could happen to others. We need to keep pointing out the truth, politely, reasonably, and with our votes.

I make it a point to invite anyone who is not totally close-minded to come to the skeet range with me.

[Freedom2specul8]

maryland watch ping



~bang~

[glock rocks]

[harpseal]

In another post I noted the police based upon their ballistics examination of the bullets/fragments stated the rifle used could be either a Ruger Mini-14 or an AR-15. Since these two rifles use different types of rifling it should be readily apparent that one or the other was ruled out. Now we have a witness claiming that the rifle used was an AK-74. Supposedly he got a good enough look to give a positive ID on the rifle the shooter used in the Falls Church shooting and he stated it was not a .223 AK-47.

If ballistic imaging were any good then certainly they should have at least known the rifle type that fired the bullets. Further the only two places where casings were found were the Bowie School shooting and the Falls Church shooting. The other incidents had no casings recovered. IMHO the Bowie casing is/was specically planted there. There is also the unconfirmed report that the casing in Bowie was found on top of the tarot card. We have not even discussed sabot/accelerator rounds which would leave no imprint on the bullet.

You are totally correct about this ballistic imaging system being a total lie about solving crimes. One of the more interesting points about ballistic imprinting and imaging comes from the case of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King where 18 bullets test fired from James Earl Ray's rifle the judge stated twelve of 18 test bullets fired contained microscopic markings that were not found on the fatal slug, an expert testified. [Thanks to S.Jackson for pointing this out to me.]

In short we have a very expensive national gun registry being proposed that has no chance of helping to solve crime , this system will be very expensive to develop and maintain and will cost lives first by making guns less available second by possibly bringing the USA to Civil War.

How do they expect to get the ballistic imprint of all those existing guns? Who will bring guns in to register them voluntarily. If they try to impose a criminal penalty on those who refuse why should they not use those guns on the politicians who would destroy our nation??? i edo not have answers just questions. Stay well - stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown

[99tango]

I worked in an armament shop (7th Support Bn, 199th Inf) in Vietnam 69-70. We were forever ordering replacement barrels, extractors, and firing pins for the M16's because of wear factors.

Granted, these weapons were used by the grunts in combat and were probably fired a lot more than your typical weekend target shooter.

You can most likely match a round from one to the next close number fired. I'd like to see how ballistic fingerprinting could ever match up a shell casing and/or bullet fired from a brand new weapon to one fired after 1000 rounds or more.

The riflings would be diminished as would the firing pin. In fact, I replaced a firing pin for a .22 LR after it was fired three times because of a defect and more recently, the FP in a .32 Fabrique Nationale semi-auto because the firing pin was so worn it could not strike the primer with enough force to fire the weapon. The firing pin had to be custom made by a machinist because we could not locate anyone still carrying replacement parts.

[Freedom2specul8]

I can't remember the photographer..but he's awesome. Did you know the model of the pic at teh other link turned anti-gun? (SO I'm told from sas)