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Calif attorney general says firearm 'fingerprinting' premature
By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer
January 29, 2003, 4:36 PM EST
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The technology doesn't yet exist to enable California to track the ballistic "fingerprints" of every firearm made and sold in the state, Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Wednesday in a report based on studies at the center of the national gun control debate.
Similar to DNA comparison technology of a decade ago, however, the potential is so great that the federal government should make developing such technology a priority, Lockyer concluded in a report to lawmakers.
His conclusions are based on two related California studies that found it currently is impractical to catalog the unique identifying marks from every firearm in California. Instead, he said, the state should monitor the progress of more limited new handgun tracking systems in Maryland and New York.
A universal ballistics database would help solve crimes, but "further refinement and maturing of the technology will need to occur before this capability is realized for the size of the system needed in California," Lockyer's Department of Justice said in its report to legislators.
Opponents of a national database have used the California studies to counter congressional proposals for a nationwide ballistics database spurred by last fall's sniper spree on the East Coast. Proponents, meanwhile, had hoped a California law would help spur similar databases in other states and, ultimately, nationally.
But Wednesday's report says a nationwide tracking database ultimately will make more sense. The federal government has the money and experience, the report says, and to work properly the database needs to track guns in every state.
Proponents and opponents have looked to California as an example because it sells and produces the most guns of any state, more than 100,000 handguns a year. Maryland, by contrast, recorded 12,400 handguns in its database last year, while New York recorded 20,973.
Technology one day may make tracking that many firearms realistic, and new methods may make matching bullets from crime scenes to firearms in the database cheaper and easier, the report concludes.
The report released Wednesday was, by law, supposed to be sent to legislators in June 2001, but Lockyer delayed its release after his Justice Department concluded such a system was impractical. He asked the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to offer a rebuttal to the state's draft study, and delayed the report again for an independent review by a European expert.
The ATF disputed much of the California report, concluding that even with current technology, "large-scale ballistic comparison goes from an impossibility to a valuable investigative tool."
But Belgian ballistics expert Jan De Kinder supported the earlier state study and disputed the ATF's rebuttal.
Calif attorney general says firearm 'fingerprinting' premature
By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer
January 29, 2003, 4:36 PM EST
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The technology doesn't yet exist to enable California to track the ballistic "fingerprints" of every firearm made and sold in the state, Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Wednesday in a report based on studies at the center of the national gun control debate.
Similar to DNA comparison technology of a decade ago, however, the potential is so great that the federal government should make developing such technology a priority, Lockyer concluded in a report to lawmakers.
His conclusions are based on two related California studies that found it currently is impractical to catalog the unique identifying marks from every firearm in California. Instead, he said, the state should monitor the progress of more limited new handgun tracking systems in Maryland and New York.
A universal ballistics database would help solve crimes, but "further refinement and maturing of the technology will need to occur before this capability is realized for the size of the system needed in California," Lockyer's Department of Justice said in its report to legislators.
Opponents of a national database have used the California studies to counter congressional proposals for a nationwide ballistics database spurred by last fall's sniper spree on the East Coast. Proponents, meanwhile, had hoped a California law would help spur similar databases in other states and, ultimately, nationally.
But Wednesday's report says a nationwide tracking database ultimately will make more sense. The federal government has the money and experience, the report says, and to work properly the database needs to track guns in every state.
Proponents and opponents have looked to California as an example because it sells and produces the most guns of any state, more than 100,000 handguns a year. Maryland, by contrast, recorded 12,400 handguns in its database last year, while New York recorded 20,973.
Technology one day may make tracking that many firearms realistic, and new methods may make matching bullets from crime scenes to firearms in the database cheaper and easier, the report concludes.
The report released Wednesday was, by law, supposed to be sent to legislators in June 2001, but Lockyer delayed its release after his Justice Department concluded such a system was impractical. He asked the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to offer a rebuttal to the state's draft study, and delayed the report again for an independent review by a European expert.
The ATF disputed much of the California report, concluding that even with current technology, "large-scale ballistic comparison goes from an impossibility to a valuable investigative tool."
But Belgian ballistics expert Jan De Kinder supported the earlier state study and disputed the ATF's rebuttal.
