I’m sure we all have experience of something in our lives
that sounded like a good idea, but in reality, it was either not practical or
realistic. A good example of this is ballistic fingerprinting, anti-gunners
love it, and have sold it to a number of countries, states or jurisdictions as
the ultimate tool for solving crimes that involve a firearms.
What’s involved? Well in this particular example every gun
sold undergoes a sample firing, the resulting bullet and cartridge case have
their individual markings recorded digitally. This information, and the spent
case and bullet are then stored, to be made available if required. I can hear
some of you saying it now “Well that’s a good idea!” But wait, and have a
think, every gun sold, that would be quite a lot. Additionally, for those in
the know or with criminal intent, this can all be made an irrelevance with a
few household products. Then add in the fact that, and here we go again, honest,
law abiding people, by definition do commit crimes, and law abiding gun owners
are in that group, and are less likely to commit a crime of any description
than your local police officer.
With all this in mind, the state of Maryland U.S.A. has,
after 15 years, and millions of dollars spent, decided to pack up their
database and storage facility, and why have they decided to do this? Well, in
all of those 15 years the information contained within all those databases, and
using all of those spent rounds for cross reference solved exactly zero cases
of a criminal act. That’s right, not a single criminal in the state of Maryland
used a legally obtained and fingerprinted firearm. You can if you wish view the
story as run by the Baltimore Sun HERE
All of this is not to say that taking the information from
bullets and cartridge cases is not a good idea, it is, but only when it is used
in conjunction with other evidence obtained at a crime scene in order to
confirm the use of a firearm in a particular crime or crimes, as has been done
since the time of this forensic sciences birth. So when your local government
or police pronounce that they a new system for preventing and solving crime,
just think back to this, and the other examples that have gone before. It will
not do a thing that it says it will in the brochure, but it will cost more and
more tax money, year on year, to administer. Money that would be better spent
in other areas of the worlds police departments.
