LOCKYER COVERING UP SECOND BALLISTIC IMAGING REPORT (Calif. Gun Control Ballistics Fingerprinting)

California Rifle and Pistol Association ^ | 12/27/2002

[SteveH]

California Rifle and Pistol Association, Inc.

271 East Imperial Highway, Suite 620 Fullerton, California 92835

(714) 992-C2R7P7A2 .FAX (714) 992-2996

Media Release December 27, 2002

For Immediate Release: December 27, 2002

For Additional Information Contact: Chuck Michel, CRPA Spokesman Tel: (310) 548-3703 Cell: (310)722-1324

LOCKYER COVERING UP SECOND BALLISTIC IMAGING REPORT

DOJ REFUSES TO RELEASE NEW STUDY ON FEASIBILITY

A gun ban lobby proposal to establish a ballistics imaging computer database was introduced this legislative session by state Senator Jack Scott (D-Altadena). State Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who apparently supports the proposal, has recently tried to dispute a research report by his own DOJ ballistics experts, and reportedly has gagged those experts from expressing their professional opinions publicly. The report is posted at www.nssf.org.

Now, Lockyer is refusing to release a new study, recently written by expert Jan De Kinder in Belgium especially for Lockyer, to address the earlier DOJ report. The De Kinder study was commissioned by DOJ in response to the controversy that the first DOJ report generated. The new report apparently confirms the earlier conclusion that the technology is unreliable and the database infeasible. A CRPA public records act request has been denied, as have requests from several media outlets.

In the initial DOJ scientific study, computer bullet sample database matching failed 38 - 62 percent of the time, depending on the type of gun tested. And the DOJ study does not address problems caused by normal wear, so the real-world failure rate can be expected to be much higher. Further, the report warned that problems of matching would soar dramatically if more guns were tested. The study's verdict: "Computer-matching systems do not provide conclusive results... potential candidates [for the match] must be manually reviewed." In California, annual firearm sales exceed 250,000. It is estimated that, working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it would take approximately nine years to completely process the information from just one year's sales using a single imaging system. A single ballistic imaging system costs about $600,000, not including the operational funding required for personnel and maintenance.

The California report also warned that "firearms that generate markings on cartridge casings can change with use and can also be readily altered by the users." A ballistic "fingerprint" is actually less like a human fingerprint than it is like the tread on a car tire. Brand-new tires are essentially identical, so new-tire tracks at crime scenes leave investigators with limited information. Unless there happens to be a particular imperfection, only the brand and model of the tire can be identified. Moreover, barrels can be easily changed. And scratching part of the inside of a barrel with a nail file would alter the bullet's path down the barrel and thus change the markings. So would putting toothpaste on a bullet before firing it. Ballistic fingerprinting faces other serious difficulties as well.

By draining resources away from other law enforcement needs and making it costly for law-abiding citizens to own guns, ballistic fingerprinting could end up actually increasing crime. The DOJ report, prepared at the instructions of the state Legislature, reveals that a statewide system would be unwieldy and impractical. In an apparent politically motivated move, Lockyer refused to make the report public, and failed to give it to the Legislature by the December 2001 deadline. But some copies of the October 2001 draft report were made available before the issue gained national prominence. In it the California Bureau of Forensic Services concluded that, among other things, attempting to apply the technology to a "mass sampling of manufactured firearms" would cause so many possible matches to be generated that the system would be "impractical," and it would "likely create logistic complications so great that the can not be effectively addressed." According to FOX news, the authors of the report have been forbidden to talk with the press.

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[SteveH]

bang

[ozzymandus]

Facts don't matter to the left, only the lie is important.

[coloradan]

Facts don't matter to the left, only the lie is important.

I don't agree. The lie isn't the most important thing - accomplishing their objective of complete civilian disarmament is. If it were to happen that they could tell the truth about something and it would help their disarmament cause, I am sure they would do it - though the opportunity hasn't arisen just quite yet.

[timestax]

bump

[timestax]

an important BUMP!