[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.

[Ancesthntr]

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.

I have more (related) questions:

Will they also fingerprint and get DNA profiles on every citizen and permanent resident (not just gun owners)? If so, just how will they sell it? How will they get it past the courts?

What will prevent gun owners from getting new barrels, firing pins, extractors, etc. (for the sake of better accuracy, you know)? This will destroy the effectiveness of the database.

What about guns the gov't knows nothing about, like pre-'68 purchases (no Form 4473), war trophies (doubtless millions over the course of the last century) and illegal imports?

This whole furor over ballistic fingerprinting is actually good - it shows the lefties for what they are (sponsors of feel-good but do-nothing legislation, dancers on the graves of murder victims, ignorant SOBs related to a subject that the claim to know so much about, etc.).

Make no mistake (and most of us here haven't), ballistic fingerprinting isn't about solving crimes now or in the future - it is all about registration of guns and gun owners.