CONSERVATIVES BELIEVE EXPANSION OF GUN BALLISTICS UNNECESSARY

FT. HAMILTON STATION, NY -- (03/08/2004; 0930)(EIS) -- In a legislative memo issued to all 212 Members of the Legislature, the Conservative Party called on the Members to reject expansion of the State's bun ballistic program stating that the program, which began in March 2001, did not solve a single case in its first year. The memo follows:

For well over 100 years, human fingerprinting, has been an established method of identifying criminals and DNA fingerprinting was introduced to the forensic world in 1985 as an accepted method of convicting criminals. Both methods are highly reliable; therefore leading many to believe that gun ballistics would be also.

Friction causes wear. Over time a gun's ballistic fingerprint changes making it drastically different from human and DNA fingerprinting.

Who can guarantee that the actual barrel hasn't been replaced? Or that nail file wasn't used to alter the bullet's path? A recent California study of 790 pistols firing 2000 rounds indicated serious problems with ballistic fingerprinting. When the cartridge used with a particular gun came from the same manufacturer, computers failed to make the match 38 percent of the time. When the cartridges came from different manufacturers, the failure to match was 62 percent. The study did not consider problems of wear, which would most likely increase the failure rate. Hawaii has had registration and licensing of guns for several decades and has spent thousands of man-hours administering these laws. Despite the massive effort, there is not one single case that police can claim that their laws have been instrumental in identifying a criminal. Why has Hawaii's methods failed? Criminals rarely leave their guns behind, if they do, it is normally because they are killed or seriously wounded, but more importantly - would be criminals seldom get a license or register their weapons.

Ballistic fingerprinting fails to accomplish its intent, it is a useless diversion of valuable police resources and public money. Unlike human and DNA fingerprinting that is consistent and valuable in solving crimes, New York's gun ballistic program which began in March 2001 with a start-up cost of approximately $4.5 million, has not help solve a single case in its first year.