PIKESVILLE, Md. (AP) — The state of Maryland is scrapping a 15-year effort to build a database of ballistic “fingerprints” on hundreds of thousands of handguns.
The Baltimore Sun reported Sunday (http://bsun.md/1MsZpQH ) that the system, enacted in 2000, never solved a single case.
The law required gun manufacturers to fire every handgun sold in Maryland and send the spent casings to authorities. State police collected the casings at their headquarters in Pikesville and built a database of ballistic “fingerprints” that could be used to solve crimes.
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6 comments:
About time, talk about a pain, buy a handgun then have to send a "certified" casing to MSP, from what I heard they were just dumped into plastic trash cans and were never put into the database anyway, "overwhelmed" the system.
Now if we can just get them to lower the restrictions on carry permits.
The article mentions that the now useless casings might be sold for scrap. Put them up as a collector's lot on eBay. You'll (we'll) get more money.
The 'casing' is not the correct place to get the ballistics fingerprints in the first place - you need the actual bullet that gets 'marked' by the barrel. Without markings on the end of the firing pin - like they tried in California - the case may not be subjected to mechanical interferences that could cause identifiable markings.
Shoddy journalism - or stupid legislation - maybe both! Baltimore newspaper reporting on a Maryland law means both!
I always knew this was a huge waste of time and money. Now this confirms what most of us thought. Another feel good government project that did nothing to help our safety.
that was done a long time ago due to lack of funding.
Stone the firing pin and breech face and there shell case won't match your gun.
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