police have to fire my gun?

[Sauer Grapes]

 

[MikeNice]

They probably realized that there is no way to ensure that the cases supplied with a given firearm were, in fact, actually fired in THAT firearm; AFTE ran a test a few years ago where they took 15 brand-new pistols delivered to a police agency (supplied with 2 test-fired cases each), and in 12 out of those 15, ONE or BOTH of the cases weren't even fired in the gun they were shipped with.

They fired the rifle that killed MLK JR nearly a dozen times. Only three of the bullets appeared to come from the same gun. Ballistic fingerprinting is actually more myth and legend than reality.

 

[mljdeckard]

The very idea makes me gag.

 

[SDC]

"So we have established then that every firearm is unique - no two are alike? I would have to raise the BS flag on that one."

Just as with fingerprints, it would be easy enough to prove it false if it was false; all you'd need to do is provide 2 firearms that actually produce identical marks on the ammunition components fired in/through those firearms, but no-one has done so in the 80 years or so that forensic ballistics has been an accepted science. The reason why is because it can be TESTED, over and over again, and if it gave incorrect results, it wouldn't be accepted. Fingerprint evidence is also accepted, despite the fact that only a small percentage of the population has ever been fingerprinted, and in test after test (including with firearms produced IMMEDIATELY after one another) fired components can easily be determined as to which exemplar fired them.