December 20, 1999
U.S. to Develop a System for `Fingerprinting' Guns
By FOX BUTTERFIELD
In a long-sought move that will help identify guns used in crimes when only their shell casings are left at a crime scene, the Clinton administration said yesterday that it was tripling the budget for the development of a unified national database of shell casings and bullets, and that one major handgun maker had agreed to start providing the federal government with information when new guns are test-fired.
"This system is very exciting and has the potential to do for gun crime what fingerprints have done for forensics," Bruce Reed, the White House domestic policy adviser, said.
The new system, to be run by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, will work toward creating a virtual fingerprint for newly manufactured handguns by using a computer analysis of the unique markings a gun leaves on shell casings when it is fired, another administration official said.
The gun maker that will cooperate with the government is the United States unit of the Austrian company Glock GmbH.
Paul Januzzo, Glock's general counsel, said, "As long as this is aimed at crime control, not gun control, we will support it."
Giving the firearms agency gun fingerprints "will speed up the gun tracing process incredibly," said Mr. Januzzo, a former prosecutor.
He added that giving the government the information could also help the firearms industry in a complex set of lawsuits filed against it by 28 cities and counties as well as by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and in parallel negotiations between lawyers for the cities and the gun companies. Mr. Reed joined those negotiations last week on behalf of the White House.
The cities have demanded that the firearms manufacturers develop a serial number that would be harder to obliterate. "If you have a system with gun fingerprints, it is better than serial numbers that can be tampered with," Mr. Januzzo said. "It may also do away with another demand by the people who want to put us out of business, registration of all gun owners, because you already have the gun registered."
The new system relies on the computer analysis of marks made on shell casings, including those caused by firing pins and those pressed on the breach face of the casing during an explosion, as well as another unique signature left when the casing is ejected. Glock will begin feeding information on all its newly manufactured nine-millimeter handguns into a machine provided by the firearms agency that was developed by a Montreal company, Forensic Technology. Mr. Reed said he hoped that the the agency would eventually get test-fire information on all Glock's guns, as well as those made by other leading manufacturers, including Smith & Wesson and Colt's Manufacturing, which are now monitoring the pilot project in cooperation with the government and Glock.
The new system has another important effect: it will put an end to a long-running feud between the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which had developed two competing, noncompatible technologies to obtain ballistic information on guns, bullets and shell casings.
The system, to be known as the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network, was developed by representatives of the two federal agencies and the Boston Police Department. Police officials in Boston had found that to obtain complete ballistics information, they had to spend money to acquire technology from both agencies.
To create the new system, Mr. Reed said, the White House will increase the budget for ballistics work from just under $10 million a year to more than $30 million, with 230 local and state law enforcement agencies expected to have access to the new system within two years.
The new ballistics identification system and the program to enter test-fire information from Glock are part of a quiet effort by the Clinton administration to develop more effective ways to combat gun crime despite a political impasse in Congress and several state legislatures over new gun control bills.
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I ain't no rocket scientist, so maybe these folks know something I don't, but I just can't see how this thing would work.
Unlike fingerprints, which never change form cradle to grave, guns do. The more they are fired, the more they wear out. As this wear and tear advances won't the distinguishing characteristics supposedly inherent in each gun also change? If the barrel, ejector or firing pin are ever replaced (not an uncommon repair practice) won't this render the "fingerprint" on file useless?
Considering that there are over half a billion firearms on this planet that have never been "fingerprinted" and probably never will, how can anyone claim with absolute certainty in a court of law that it's impossible for two guns to produce identical markings on a cartridge case?
Oh well, I guess our tax dollars have been spent on dumber things.
[This message has been edited by Karanas (edited December 20, 1999).]
U.S. to Develop a System for `Fingerprinting' Guns
By FOX BUTTERFIELD
In a long-sought move that will help identify guns used in crimes when only their shell casings are left at a crime scene, the Clinton administration said yesterday that it was tripling the budget for the development of a unified national database of shell casings and bullets, and that one major handgun maker had agreed to start providing the federal government with information when new guns are test-fired.
"This system is very exciting and has the potential to do for gun crime what fingerprints have done for forensics," Bruce Reed, the White House domestic policy adviser, said.
The new system, to be run by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, will work toward creating a virtual fingerprint for newly manufactured handguns by using a computer analysis of the unique markings a gun leaves on shell casings when it is fired, another administration official said.
The gun maker that will cooperate with the government is the United States unit of the Austrian company Glock GmbH.
Paul Januzzo, Glock's general counsel, said, "As long as this is aimed at crime control, not gun control, we will support it."
Giving the firearms agency gun fingerprints "will speed up the gun tracing process incredibly," said Mr. Januzzo, a former prosecutor.
He added that giving the government the information could also help the firearms industry in a complex set of lawsuits filed against it by 28 cities and counties as well as by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and in parallel negotiations between lawyers for the cities and the gun companies. Mr. Reed joined those negotiations last week on behalf of the White House.
The cities have demanded that the firearms manufacturers develop a serial number that would be harder to obliterate. "If you have a system with gun fingerprints, it is better than serial numbers that can be tampered with," Mr. Januzzo said. "It may also do away with another demand by the people who want to put us out of business, registration of all gun owners, because you already have the gun registered."
The new system relies on the computer analysis of marks made on shell casings, including those caused by firing pins and those pressed on the breach face of the casing during an explosion, as well as another unique signature left when the casing is ejected. Glock will begin feeding information on all its newly manufactured nine-millimeter handguns into a machine provided by the firearms agency that was developed by a Montreal company, Forensic Technology. Mr. Reed said he hoped that the the agency would eventually get test-fire information on all Glock's guns, as well as those made by other leading manufacturers, including Smith & Wesson and Colt's Manufacturing, which are now monitoring the pilot project in cooperation with the government and Glock.
The new system has another important effect: it will put an end to a long-running feud between the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which had developed two competing, noncompatible technologies to obtain ballistic information on guns, bullets and shell casings.
The system, to be known as the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network, was developed by representatives of the two federal agencies and the Boston Police Department. Police officials in Boston had found that to obtain complete ballistics information, they had to spend money to acquire technology from both agencies.
To create the new system, Mr. Reed said, the White House will increase the budget for ballistics work from just under $10 million a year to more than $30 million, with 230 local and state law enforcement agencies expected to have access to the new system within two years.
The new ballistics identification system and the program to enter test-fire information from Glock are part of a quiet effort by the Clinton administration to develop more effective ways to combat gun crime despite a political impasse in Congress and several state legislatures over new gun control bills.
*********************************************************
I ain't no rocket scientist, so maybe these folks know something I don't, but I just can't see how this thing would work.
Unlike fingerprints, which never change form cradle to grave, guns do. The more they are fired, the more they wear out. As this wear and tear advances won't the distinguishing characteristics supposedly inherent in each gun also change? If the barrel, ejector or firing pin are ever replaced (not an uncommon repair practice) won't this render the "fingerprint" on file useless?
Considering that there are over half a billion firearms on this planet that have never been "fingerprinted" and probably never will, how can anyone claim with absolute certainty in a court of law that it's impossible for two guns to produce identical markings on a cartridge case?
Oh well, I guess our tax dollars have been spent on dumber things.
[This message has been edited by Karanas (edited December 20, 1999).]