Now it's a "regional" proposal
Gun sales may require ‘fingerprints’
Gregory B. Hladky, Capitol Bureau Chief February 26, 2003
HARTFORD — Connecticut should join other Eastern states to create a regional "ballistic fingerprinting" system that could track down handguns used in crimes, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers said Tuesday.
The proposal would require that when a new handgun is sold in Connecticut or other participating states a spent bullet and shell casing from that weapon be sent to a central ballistic fingerprinting data bank.
If the weapon were later used in a crime, police could check the crime scene bullet or shell casing against those listed in the data bank to trace the original owner of the handgun. Each firearm leaves its own characteristic marks on the bullet and the shell.
The state Senate’s top Democrat, Kevin B. Sullivan of West Hartford, said Massachusetts is considering similar legislation and New York and Maryland already have such laws on the books.
State Sen. William H. Nickerson, R-Greenwich, said that "it is not a radical new idea — the (federal) Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has been doing this for years."
But Robert Crook, spokesman for the Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen, derided the concept as "a bad thing. . . . It wastes money and doesn’t do anything" to prevent crime.
Crook claimed that "there has not been one single prosecution" as a result of the ballistic finger-printing databanks that have been established in Maryland and New York in recent years. He also warned that it is extremely easy to alter the so-called ballistic finger-print that a particular handgun leaves on a bullet and its shell casing.
According to Crook, the ATF uses ballistic fingerprinting only for firearms that have already been used in crimes and could be used again, and for police weapons.
State Rep. Michael Lawlor, an East Haven Democrat who is co-chairman of the legislature’s Judiciary Committee, said the system would rely on proven technology that’s already in use in several states.
"It’s a technology that has been demonstrated to be effective," said Lawlor, who added that no such system is foolproof. Lawlor said complaints about ballistic fingerprinting not being perfect could apply to other anti-crime technologies.
"You could wear gloves (at the scene of a crime) and not leave fingerprints, but that’s no reason not to collect fingerprints," Lawlor said.
According to Lawlor, the cost of running a ballistic fingerprint database could be as high as $2-$3 per handgun. He said there are about 30,000 new handguns sold each year in Connecticut. If Connecticut wasn’t able to join in a regional system, the state might have to spend $1 million for the equipment needed for such a database.
But Sullivan said the hope is that costs would be reduced by creating a regional system that could eventually be expanded to a nationwide ballistic fingerprinting database. Sullivan estimated that creation of a regional system would be at least two years in the future.
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Gregory B. Hladky can be contacted at
[email protected], or (860) 524-0719.
©New Haven Register 2003