Posted on 12/08/2011 3:36:16 AM PST by marktwain
ALBANY, NY (12/06/2011)(readMedia)-- In these difficult economic times Gov. Cuomo and the State Legislature are scrambling to deal with a current $350 million budget deficit that will rise to $3 - $3.5 billion next year. It is imperative that every dollar spent goes to proven programs. The New York State Rifle & Pistol Association has a suggestion for meeting this goal: abolish the Combined Ballistic Identification System (CoBIS).
The CoBIS program was introduced by Gov. Pataki in 2001. Its stated purpose is to collect identifying data from the shell casings of all new handguns sold in the state. This information is then entered into a database for use by law enforcement to aid in identifying and prosecuting criminals. Since its inception, over 350,000 shell cases have been collected and entered into the database – at an estimated cost of $43 million – and not a single arrest or conviction has resulted. In fact, CoBIS has proven to be such a boondoggle that no other state is even considering implementing their own version of it.
If Gov. Cuomo and the Legislature are serious about streamlining the budget then CoBIS ought to be abolished and its resources reallocated by the State Police to proven crime-fighting programs.
I am not sure that no other state has this policy; I thought CA did have this law. I know every Smith and Wesson gun comes with a fired casing for just such a purpose. I throw it in the trash.
I would think just routine firing of any handgun would cause any original tool marks to wear down over time to the point where the marks made on the original case wouldn't even resemble the marks made after the 1000th or 5000th shell was ejected.
5 minutes with a stone or fine sandpaper on the ejector or extractor would definitely make the original sample useless and what about those handguns that have replaceable parts?
I would think these facts alone would be easy enough to prove in court that any arrest or search warrant that was issued based on the original marking to be declare invalid and any evidence gathered from those warrants to be excluded.
This demonstrates the total lack of knowledge and intelligence of the liberal mindset. They craft legislation that is geared towards a steady state and don't consider that things can change. In this case, collect physical samples of a guns markings when new but those marking will change with use or maintenance of the gun, but the same applies to other issues. Need more tax revenue? Raise the tax rates. Of course, that doesn't consider that some people may change their income mix to avoid those additional taxes, or they may just move out of a high tax state.
I think the fact that $43 million has been wasted on this boondoggle without a single prosecution is evidence enough that this is a worthless policy and should be abolished.
I am not sure that no other state has this policy; I thought CA did have this law. I know every Smith and Wesson gun comes with a fired casing for just such a purpose. I throw it in the trash.
I think some manufacturers include the fired casing to make it easier for any state that does or might require it.
No, CA never passed a similar law, they thought about it long and hard but never got to it. All a criminal has to do is to make some scratches on the face of the bolt around the firing pin and it will change the markings on the case. It is a totally useless law and has never been used to solve any crimes and never will be, except on TV cop and lawyer shows.
Every time I run into one of these “ballistic fingerprinting” types (mostly educators), I suggest that why wouldn’t “automotive fingerprinting” also be a useful tool (computerize a copy of the tire treads on every new car)? A lot of times they get half way through the “but wear and tear . . .” when the light comes on and they shut up. Most of the others get a deer-in-the-headlights look at the utter stupidity of the proposal but can’t seem to make the correlation.
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