'Ballistic fingerprinting' advocates follow emotion, not reason

by Joe Brower
joebrower3@comcast.net
Originally published at HeraldTribune.com
Reprinted with author's permission

November 2002

With the advent of the "Beltway Sniper" shootings, there has been the predictable hue and cry for more gun control, mostly in the form of a "ballistic fingerprinting database" for all firearms. Simply put, the idea is that bullets recovered from shootings could be matched to images stored in a computer, the owner of the weapon could then be determined and an arrest could be made.

Sounds good, doesn't it?

Unfortunately, in the real world, it doesn't work. The federal government has been working on such a system for a decade. Since 1999, its advocates like to proclaim, it's made more than 12,000 matches. But it has yielded no convictions.

Why? Because the "fingerprints" are nowhere near distinct enough to provide matches that are truly viable as evidence. Maryland has had a similar system in use for the last two years. Number of convictions: zero. California has reviewed the feasibility of this idea and deemed it "unworkable."

The term "fingerprint" is a deliberate misnomer. Real fingerprints cannot be changed. A firearm's working parts can all be altered in five minutes with tools commonly found in any garage.

Don't think that criminals don't know this; they most certainly do. Even normal use will change the "fingerprint" in time.

So why is such an ineffective measure even considered?

"Ballistic fingerprinting" is just a facade for what is truly desired by its advocates: a national gun registry. A list of every gun owner in the United States, where they live and what firearms they possess. This is hardly a concept befitting a nation that professes to be "the land of the free."

Who would even want such a thing? Need you ask?

The voices that have immediately sought to capitalize on this tragedy are the same ones who attempt to use every abuse of firearms to further their goal of restricting guns or banning them outright. These include Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., in the U.S. Senate, the appointed bureaucrats of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and such groups as the Brady Campaign and the Violence Policy Center, among others.

Even so, is a national firearms registry a bad thing? Absolutely.

Why? Because all registration schemes lead to eventual confiscation. This is readily verifiable. This inevitable progression is ongoing in Britain and Australia. In the 20th century, it preceded much of the conflict in Europe and Asia.

Those who say "it can't happen here" are whistling past the graveyard of history. It's simply not worth the risk.

Thankfully, the truth of this is obvious to many, and is the primary reason why "ballistic fingerprinting" proposals have gone nowhere.

The whole scheme violates the Second, Fourth, Fifth and 10th Amendments to the Constitution, as well as the concept of prior restraint and the prohibition of ex-post-facto laws. We still live in a nation where people are considered innocent until proven guilty.

If the police have probable cause to suspect our involvement in a crime, they have the right to fingerprint us, take a DNA sample or check the ballistic identification of our guns. If they don't have probable cause, they don't. It's that simple.

Of all the articles in the Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment is the one that specifically states "shall not be infringed," but is, ironically, the most infringed upon. Any honest man could simply look up the word "infringe" in the dictionary and go from there. Over 20,000 laws now hinder this fundamental human right -- the right to self-defense.

We human beings, for all our technology and civilization, are creatures who still feel more quickly and more strongly than we think. The heart betrays the mind; gun control is primarily an illogical response to fear. Impelled by the need to "do something," we are misled into actions that do more harm than good.

The truth is that no law is better than a bad law, and knee- jerk concepts like "ballistic fingerprinting" are bad law.

Every time a crime is committed involving firearms, there invariably follows the usual demands that we surrender even more of our freedoms, all for a false promise of safety that politicians know can never be delivered. It is a siren call that rational, thinking people cannot, will not heed.

Joe Brower is a Venice software engineer and freedom advocate.

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