Posted on 10/13/2002 3:41:26 AM PDT by VaMarVet
I believe the best they can do is to identify the firearms manufacturer, based in the general characteristics of the rifling. The characteristics would be number of grooves, right-hand or left-hand twist of the rifling, and perhaps general dimensions of the rifling.
However, it is very unlikely they can identify the specific firearm. Why? One those 'ballistic fingerprints' are of a brand-new gun barrel. What happens, when the gun is fired a number of times, especially with jacketed bullets? Or, for that matter, cleaned vigorously with a wire brush to remove jacket fouling, or the barrel is lapped to improve accuracy? The barrel wears, of course.
It does seem the gun control advocates are either incredibly stupid or reprehesibly dishonest, though it is quite possible they are both stupid and dishonest.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.