How individual are mass-produced guns? If a man buys a .38 for himself, likes it, and buys the same model for his daughter, would they look the same, ballistics wise?
One thing to remember, though: ballistics is an inexact science. It's not like DNA, it's more like fingerprinting. Each individual is unique, but there are similarities that are open to interpretation by humans and therefore open to human error. There have been cases where suspects were pulled in based on partial fingerprinting matches who did not commit the crime and could not possibly.
It's one thing for forensics if you're looking at two suspects, one of whom has a .38 made in the last couple years by Company X and the other has a .38 made in 1980 by Company X or Company Y or whatever. They run ballistics and it's pretty easy to tell which gun the bullet came from. If you're talking about essentially "sister" guns, and both the dad and the daughter are already suspects for other reasons, the differences would be pretty minute and open to some interpretation.
But police don't choose suspects based on ballistics, so you first have to have a situation where father and daughter are both under suspicion for other reasons, have no alibi, etc.
It's one thing for forensics if you're looking at two suspects, one of whom has a .38 made in the last couple years by Company X and the other has a .38 made in 1980 by Company X or Company Y or whatever. They run ballistics and it's pretty easy to tell which gun the bullet came from. If you're talking about essentially "sister" guns, and both the dad and the daughter are already suspects for other reasons, the differences would be pretty minute and open to some interpretation.
But police don't choose suspects based on ballistics, so you first have to have a situation where father and daughter are both under suspicion for other reasons, have no alibi, etc.
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment