Gun databases have achieved zero results - The Firearms Forum

Don Buckbee · 02-14-2009, 05:20 AM

from reasononline.com:

Baloney Ballistics
Gun databases fail
Brian Doherty | January 2009 Print Edition

Seven years ago, New York started a database of "ballistic fingerprints" for all new handguns sold in the state. The bill's backers sold it as a crime-solving device, arguing that the state would now have a sample of a spent shell and bullet for every new gun sold. This, they said, would help police connect future evidence from crime scenes to specific guns.

Since then, the authorities have entered 200,000 newly purchased guns into the database and spent $1 million dollars a year on the system. Yet it hasn't led to a single solved crime. The only other state with such a database, Maryland, can attribute at least one conviction to the system since it was created in 2000-more than zero, but few enough that the state's own Police Forensics Division has suggested scrapping the program because of its demonstrated lack of benefits.

This hasn't come as a surprise to gun rights activists, who pointed to several potential problems when the databases were originally debated. Among them: The markings left by a gun are not guaranteed to be the same over the long term and can be deliberately changed with simple expedients such as filing inside the barrel; the vast majority of guns used in crimes are stolen or otherwise obtained in a black market, not used by their original legal owner; devoting so much record keeping to every gun sold guarantees wasted effort, since less than 1 percent of all guns sold will ever be used in a crime.

In 2003 a report from the California Attorney General's Office recommended against launching such a program because of its likely ineffectiveness in crime solving. And a March 2008 study from the National Research Council recommended against a national version of the New York and Maryland databases. In addition to noting the obvious ways in which such a program could be easily circumvented by criminals, the study said the theory behind the ballistics databases—that every gun marks shells and bullets in specific, stable, identifiable ways—has not been scientifically proven.

Lori Mick · 02-14-2009, 05:48 AM

Did they ever think that the registered and 'law abiding' citizens are not the problem?

Aren't most crimes commited by the bad guys with the illegal guns?

Spend a million bucks a year and then cry to the government that they're broke!

sigh

just short rants this morning....my head hurts!

02-14-2009, 05:20 AM	#1
Don Buckbee Senior Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Grayling, MI Posts: 712	Gun databases have achieved zero results from reasononline.com: Baloney Ballistics Gun databases fail Brian Doherty \| January 2009 Print Edition Seven years ago, New York started a database of "ballistic fingerprints" for all new handguns sold in the state. The bill's backers sold it as a crime-solving device, arguing that the state would now have a sample of a spent shell and bullet for every new gun sold. This, they said, would help police connect future evidence from crime scenes to specific guns. Since then, the authorities have entered 200,000 newly purchased guns into the database and spent $1 million dollars a year on the system. Yet it hasn't led to a single solved crime. The only other state with such a database, Maryland, can attribute at least one conviction to the system since it was created in 2000-more than zero, but few enough that the state's own Police Forensics Division has suggested scrapping the program because of its demonstrated lack of benefits. This hasn't come as a surprise to gun rights activists, who pointed to several potential problems when the databases were originally debated. Among them: The markings left by a gun are not guaranteed to be the same over the long term and can be deliberately changed with simple expedients such as filing inside the barrel; the vast majority of guns used in crimes are stolen or otherwise obtained in a black market, not used by their original legal owner; devoting so much record keeping to every gun sold guarantees wasted effort, since less than 1 percent of all guns sold will ever be used in a crime. In 2003 a report from the California Attorney General's Office recommended against launching such a program because of its likely ineffectiveness in crime solving. And a March 2008 study from the National Research Council recommended against a national version of the New York and Maryland databases. In addition to noting the obvious ways in which such a program could be easily circumvented by criminals, the study said the theory behind the ballistics databases—that every gun marks shells and bullets in specific, stable, identifiable ways—has not been scientifically proven. __________________ Don JPFO NRA Benefactor Member NSSA Life Member -->

02-14-2009, 05:48 AM	#2
Lori Mick Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Stuck in Upstate NY for a while Posts: 2,374	Re: Gun databases have achieved zero results Did they ever think that the registered and 'law abiding' citizens are not the problem? Aren't most crimes commited by the bad guys with the illegal guns? Spend a million bucks a year and then cry to the government that they're broke! sigh just short rants this morning....my head hurts! __________________ It's a Brand New Day! Make it an awesome one! "No one outside myself can rule me inwardly. Knowing this I become wholly free."