Finger printing other than DNA printing, and in some cases dental records is the only way to permanently identify a person. With today's technology and printers, any image on any license, passport, or for that matter any official document can be altered, fabricated, and even stolen.. Identity theft is one thing that will change your attitude, when it comes to your personal rights to unfettered freedom, should you ever have it happen to you.
So you want a concealed weapons permit, you know that you are a fine upstanding citizen who has never been in trouble with the law, you fill out the application, give it to your police, they do a criminal background check and lo and behold you are listed as a wanted fugitive because someone stole your identity. What do you do. Your fingerprints have never been provided to the FBI so how do you prove that the wanted fugitive is not YOU?
I know first hand about identity theft, and although my case wasn't this serious, my identity was stolen, and it pretty much took an act of god to get it resolved.
Al