[dirtboy]

"If we had that fingerprinting [for rifles], that guy wouldn't be free right now," Fitzgerald said of the sniper.

What an idiot.

[Pete]

"If we had that fingerprinting [for rifles], that guy wouldn't be free right now," Fitzgerald said of the sniper. What an idiot.

Joe (Abdul) Psycho: "Here is my rifle for fingerprinting".
State Official:"Oh, thank you very much. Did you purchase this in Maryland?"
Joe (Abdul) Psycho: "No, it was smuggled in from Canada. By the way, I was wondering how long this is going to take since I am planning on killing random people this afternoon."

[punster]

You are right.

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.