From 20 Dec 99 NYTimes
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.
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.