The Firing Line Forums

Go Back   The Firing Line Forums > Hogan's Alley > Handguns: General Handgun Forum

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old December 29, 1999, 09:56 AM   #1
Joseph
Senior Member
 
Join Date: November 18, 1999
Location: Cornelius, NC
Posts: 695
>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.
Joseph is offline  
Old December 29, 1999, 01:44 PM   #2
Art Eatman
Staff in Memoriam
 
Join Date: November 13, 1998
Location: Terlingua, TX; Thomasville, GA
Posts: 24,798
Well, what's another $20 million/yr to Big Bubba?

I guess that's one way to increase the popularity of revolvers over automatics. But the bad guys won't ever figure that out, right?

And I'd never figure out what to do with a Dremel tool, nor change barrels?

Nobody ever used a stolen gun in a crime? Nobody will ever use an "old" gun in a crime?

Well, at least it's only a $20 million boondoggle...

Art
Art Eatman is offline  
Old December 29, 1999, 02:32 PM   #3
TMB2
Senior Member
 
Join Date: December 9, 1999
Location: Rochester Hills, Michigan
Posts: 130
"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." - That statement tells me all I need to know about the real motivation of the Socialists with this waste of $20 million. This is nothing more than yet another public relations stunt by the Clintonistas to convince a largely ignorant public that something needs to be done to control guns in order to reduce crime; and, since some of those nasty Republicans keep getting in the way, we are going to do something to protect you from those nasty gun owners.
I'm telling you folks, I just can't wait 'till these Socialist are out of the White House! The notion that Glock would buy into this program is, to me, revealing. Did we really think that the Austrians care about our RKBA?
TMB2 is offline  
Old December 29, 1999, 05:51 PM   #4
Glenn E. Meyer
Senior Member
 
Join Date: November 17, 2000
Posts: 20,064
Plenty of Republicans who are pro-big business
and not socialists are quite happy to be anti-gun. Check out some Republican governors
and congress people.

It ain't just socialism. That's becoming
a dangerous cliche.
Glenn E. Meyer is offline  
Old December 29, 1999, 09:05 PM   #5
petej88
Senior Member
 
Join Date: November 7, 1999
Location: US
Posts: 510
Make sure you pick up all your brass after shooting at the range. Looks like the next big market for the bad guys is to buy a small bag of range brass that they can throw at the scene. Heck, even though I'm innocent, I may end up in prison yet. Thanks Bill.
petej88 is offline  
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:35 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
This site and contents, including all posts, Copyright © 1998-2021 S.W.A.T. Magazine
Copyright Complaints: Please direct DMCA Takedown Notices to the registered agent: thefiringline.com
Page generated in 0.04679 seconds with 7 queries