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Building a Comprehensive Ballistics Database?
Linuxathome asks: "I'm a resident in the Washington DC-Baltimore Metropolitan area. If you've kept up with the news lately, you've probably have heard about the serial killings. I realize that this question may spark a political debate, but my question pertains to current technology. The gun law debate has been recently re-ignited. And the hot topic of current is in regards to fingerprinting firearms. Gun rights supporters argue that the technology behind fingerprinting is not reliable (see John Dingell). Dingell estimates there are approximately 50 million gun owners in the US (I don't have estimates of how many guns are out there). Is an image database of 50 million spent casings not feasible?" What issues, both technical and political, would there be surrounding the creation (and the current hold up) of such a database?
Regardless of reliability of the method (the main issue is you simply replace the barrel and/or firing pin and you have a different print) the fact remains that criminals will simply need to get unregistered or stolen firearms to circumvent the system. So what is the point in spending millions if not billions to register all the guns if it will only help in a very small percentage of the cases?
Barrel markings change over the life of the gun, so how feasible is it with respect to that aspect? I don't think it is at all.
Phil
One issue with a ballistics database is that the characteristics of a gun barrel change with every shot. After a couple hundred shots it might have changed enough to make enough of a difference for the computer to fail to make a match.
I imagine it'd be possible to change the barrel's fingerprint by scouring the inside of the barrel (say with steel wool). The barrel could also be swapped out completely...
Fingerprinting the bullets won't work, even considering the noraml wear of the barrel, because with a small amount of work you can completely change the way the barrel makes marks on the bullet.
Fingerprinting the marks on the brass cartridges is even worse; not only can that be changed, but if you shoot your gun at a public range, anyone could grab a case you've left behind and frame you with it, taking attention away from themselves.
I think it's New Jersey that's instituted a program for fingerprinting the cartridge cases; they've spent a godawful amount of money on the program, and the end result has been no useful information towards making arrests.
If your are going to require current gun owners to register their casings, then that will require that the gun be fired. There are many collectors who have prized mint-condition firearms, never been fired. These can be worth multiple thousands of dollars. As soon as you fire the first round, it will drop the value significantly. Also, what do you do about guns that are in a collection but aren't in working order?
MD and NY already have ballistics DBs. How they are set up I have no idea. I do know that one legal issue is that only artifacts recovered at crime scenes are kept in that database, not everyone who owns a gun in those states.
Rob Andrews of NJ has proposed a national database of all manufactured guns. It's come up before, and NRA lobbyists have always been successful in knocking it down.
Two issues already brought up by other posters: Yes, criminals will still get guns illegally. Such a system obviously won't protect against that, but it'll root out who's selling guns illegally. And yes, ballistics change over time the more a gun gets used. Modern guns, however, take thousands of rounds before a difference is noticeable, making this argument negligible.
As for technical issues, this looks like a problem similar to the DoJ's Fingerprint database. Basically, this DB, when given a print to search for, returns several possible matches, as perfect matching isn't possible. An investigator then takes those matches and performs a hand check of each to determine if the print he has has been seen before. This means the DoJ's agencies have to keep prints on hard-copy records in filing cabinets.
The major difference is that the DoJ DB doesnt contain every individual's fingerprint, while the proposed ballistics DB would contain the fingerprint of every manufactured gun made after the system goes live. If ballistics are non-deterministic like the DoJ fingerprints, then that means every used round would have to be physically kept somewhere, and it would quickly add up to a lot of space.
Best thing to do is to find out how MD and NY have their systems working.
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
Everyone so far has pointed out that the characteristics of a gun barrel change over time. This is true, and it would mean that eventually the markings might change enough to make a "fingerprint" useless.
However, you can readily buy replacement barrels for most rifles anyway. So you could handily buy a weapon and register it, and then swap out the barrel, use the weapon in a crime, and then change it back. Obviously this would take planning and a minor amount of skill (it's really not hard to take apart assault rifles -- remember, they are designed to be taken apart and cleaned in the field by unsophisticated soldiers). The D.C. killer is obviously skilled enough to accomplish this.
Bullet fingerprinting is still an idea that does have its merits, but don't let anyone fool you that such laws would be in any way helpful in catching the current D.C. area serial killer.
This doesn't address the issue that its fairly easy to build a firearm either. Take Bill Holmes line of books. With a lathe and a milling machine you can produce a firearm in as little as a day or two.
Once again this is a knee-jerk reaction. This person or persons has commited a crime, and when caught will be punished for it. Thinking that any law would have prevented this is illogical and flat out wrong. You can make anything a crime but that doesn't mean its going to stop anyone from doing it. What it does is create a police state where everyone is a criminal and as such can be controlled.
Of course, if you re-bore your barrel, that might sidestep the issue. How difficult is that maneuver and does it ruin the usefulness/accuracy of the gun?
Any half wit backwoods gunsmith can rebore a barrel and still have a reasonably accurate gun. The issue is we aren't dealing with high end equipment, guns have been around for hundreds upon hud reds of years and the tech to build and maintain them is relatively low. So anything that relies on a physical aspect of the firearm can be modified, and hence the system circumvented, by ANYONE with a small machine shop (ie tools in their garage).
In order to get a conviction you must make the following links:
1) bullet to gun
2) gun to perpatrator
The hard part is #2. The gun's rightful owner is generally not the perp. (You know that, right?). Even if you could comprehensively backpopulate all 50 million existing guns to their fingerprint, you would acheive nothing.
For example, after the first shooting we have the fingerprint of this gun. We know that the following shootings were done by the same gun. We do not have an arrest. WHY? Because it is step 2 that is hard.
Of course, attempts to make a database of existing guns will fail utterly. I think the 30 million NRA members will probably interpret your request for a bullet sample a little differently that you.
It's my understanding that the markings left on both the shell casing and the spent round are more like DNA matching (ie: I'm 99% sure it's this person, I'm 100% sure it's NOT the other person) and less like fingerprints (I'm 100% sure, both ways)
Additionally, did anyone notice something odd about the latest killing? The police said that they linked the killing at the home depot to the other string using ballistic evidence, but they said the killer may have used a different rifle? Maybe the media is oversimplifying here, but how can you link a killing to a string of other killings ballistically if it's a different gun?
There is some good in this, as in all databases that are intended to help track/solve criminal cases. As there are records that police and investigators can search to give them a list of all known criminals with an MO (Modus Operendi) of X. They can narrow down the investigation by searching and finding out who is still in jail, who is dead and who has moved elsewhere (doesn't mean they are guilty/innocent, just not a good suspect). A database of all spent cartridges would go along these lines of helping narrow the search. While the barrels may deteriorate over time and use, the rifling patterns of X groves with Y twists will remain the same -- changing the barrel of a 9mm Glock with another barrel will still get you the same X and Ys, just more defined in a new barrel.
.40 cal conversion kit and use it to commit the crime. Reinstall the original 9mm kit and ditch the .40 cal kit. As the kit is not a working firearm, there is not a legal requirement to keep a record of the individual purchasing the kit. Pay cash and there is a dead in trail. When the police come because you are a close match to the person on the video or eyewitness description, you can safely produce you legally owned 9mm and they get a dead end.
Where does the Bad come in? Well, from personal experience, I bought a used hand gun from A&P arms in Virgina years ago. Recently, I had a phone call from a Virginia Beach police officer investigating a robbery and looking for a gun -- the federal registry said that I had the gun (they only had a partial serial, but insisted I was the only gun) and I had not lived in Virgina for over 5 years. Luckily, I was able to provide him the name of the dealer I sold the gun to. Also, luckily, he was a polite individual and knew that the system was giving him information that could not be true, but he had to follow the lead as my serial number was a partial match. If this system is implemented, then it should be used to check used weapons when they are sold/changed ownership. There are many ads in trade papers for weapons, and I would not be against a requirement that a ballistics check be made before I purchased it. This is akin to a background check on potential buyers of guns, and since all a criminal has to do, is pick up the local classifeds/trade magazine -- there is no US law that states that an individual has to perform a background check on someone prior to selling them a personal weapon.
The Ugly? Well, if you check out many guns, they now come with multiple caliber barrels for the same frame. Buy a 9mm over the counter, register it, and have it entered into the ballistic database. Go to a gun show, purchase a
Where this database will come in handy, is all the firearms in police impound. There are numerous weapons that never make it to melt down, and those criminals (and maybe the officer) that has it may not consider changing the identifying items..barrel and firing pin.
Criminals will always have the means to obtain a gun, and as long as I have the right to carry mine, I'm not worried.
The best defense against a tyrranical governement, is a well armed populace.
Sig? What's a Sig?
There is also the issue of frangible ammo (such as Sinterfire), which you will be seeing ALOT more of in the future. This type of ammo turns to dust on impact, and as such there is not ballistic fingerprint on the bullet because there is no bullet. The beauty of this type of ammo is that there is no back splatter, ricochet or over penetration worries. Also the bullet delivers nearly 100% of its energy into the target making the shot that much more effective at "stopping the action" which is what most police agencies are trained to do. There is also no lead, which is a big worry for shooting ranges now a days.
And while we are it, for the noble cause of solving crime, why don't we fingerprint not only guns, but also fingers/hands of every person in the country. After all, criminals may leave fingerprints at crime scenes and that will allow us to easily identify and locate those criminals. And let's not forget about collecting the DNA information too. That would be wonderful for solving all those rapes and whatnot.
So, all you gun control nuts - see anything wrong with this picture?