Report Suggests Repealing Ballistics Law
By BRIAN WITTE
Associated Press Writer
BALTIMORE - A law requiring Maryland State Police to collect ballistics information from each handgun sold in the state has not aided a single criminal investigation and should be repealed, a state police report has concluded.
About $2.5 million has been spent on the program so far. Col. Thomas E. Hutchins, the state police superintendent, said he would prefer spending the money on proven crime-fighting techniques.
Maryland was the first state to adopt a ballistic fingerprinting law in April 2000. New York is the only other state to have such a database.
The Maryland law requires gun manufacturers to test-fire handguns and send a spent shell casing from each gun sold in the state to police. The casing's unique markings are entered into a database for future gun tracing.
"The system really is not doing anything," Hutchins said. "The guns that we find at crime scenes may not necessarily be the ones sold in Maryland, so there's nothing to compare it to anyway."
Sanford Abrams, vice president of the Maryland Licensed Firearms Dealers Association, added that the system only leads police to the person who bought the gun, when many guns used in crimes have been stolen.
The report also pointed to shortcomings in how ballistics information is sent to authorities. In one case, a gun dealer test-fired guns, rather than the guns' manufacturer, according to the report.
Gun-control groups favor ballistic fingerprinting systems, saying they are effective crime-fighting tools. Leah Barrett, executive director of CeaseFire Maryland, said state police are not using the database enough.
She said scrapping the state program could deal a setback to better ballistics imaging. "I think it's a real tragedy because other states are looking at New York and Maryland to see how we succeed with this," she said.
Yes, it's been SUCH at triumph so far! :barf:
By BRIAN WITTE
Associated Press Writer
BALTIMORE - A law requiring Maryland State Police to collect ballistics information from each handgun sold in the state has not aided a single criminal investigation and should be repealed, a state police report has concluded.
About $2.5 million has been spent on the program so far. Col. Thomas E. Hutchins, the state police superintendent, said he would prefer spending the money on proven crime-fighting techniques.
Maryland was the first state to adopt a ballistic fingerprinting law in April 2000. New York is the only other state to have such a database.
The Maryland law requires gun manufacturers to test-fire handguns and send a spent shell casing from each gun sold in the state to police. The casing's unique markings are entered into a database for future gun tracing.
"The system really is not doing anything," Hutchins said. "The guns that we find at crime scenes may not necessarily be the ones sold in Maryland, so there's nothing to compare it to anyway."
Sanford Abrams, vice president of the Maryland Licensed Firearms Dealers Association, added that the system only leads police to the person who bought the gun, when many guns used in crimes have been stolen.
The report also pointed to shortcomings in how ballistics information is sent to authorities. In one case, a gun dealer test-fired guns, rather than the guns' manufacturer, according to the report.
Gun-control groups favor ballistic fingerprinting systems, saying they are effective crime-fighting tools. Leah Barrett, executive director of CeaseFire Maryland, said state police are not using the database enough.
She said scrapping the state program could deal a setback to better ballistics imaging. "I think it's a real tragedy because other states are looking at New York and Maryland to see how we succeed with this," she said.
Yes, it's been SUCH at triumph so far! :barf:
