This is right up there with the mythical "Assault Weapon" and "Saturday Night Special" buzz word talking points of the anti-gunners. Now it is "Ballistic Fingerprinting" or "Ballistic DNA".
The only problem is that a gun is a machanical device that is subject to wear and tampering and modification. Try doing that with your own fingerprints or DNA.
Reading the interesting study that California did was very educational. Interesting findings were, among others, that,
1) Different brands of ammunition made different markings in the same gun.
2) Some guns (same brands) gave virtually identical markings.
3) There is a necessity for a human to make a judgement call on the comparitive markings from one case or bullet to another.
4) Increasing the size and scope of the database with thousands more samples will actually "pollute" the system causing a data overload of otherwise non suspect samples with them in turn having to be compared by a technician. To say nothing of the daunting task presented to this technician attempting to sift through this database.
In my state of New York, we instituted such a system 2 years ago (new handguns) which cost over 4 million dollars and puts a number of State Troopers off the streets and in the office administering this system. It takes away precious law enforcement resources for persuit of ghosts.
By the way, not one crime has been solved by use of this system since it was implemented. I guess that is to be expected when only law abiding citizens are the ones who are largley affected by it.
The REAL objective is to slow down the flow of new guns on the market for sale, to add another buracratic hurdle to overcome, to increase the cost of the purchase, to institute defacto registration.
Believe me, there is nothing about crime solving/fighting associated with this subject. It is being SOLD to the public this way however with no intellectual discussion of it's shortcomings/capabilities.
This is the era of symbolism over substance. This is why our politicians from both sides of the aisle are never interested in things that work but are interested in the best PR to associate themselves with.
This is fertile ground for the antis because there isn't 1 in 100 people that really understands this subject or it's technical capabilities or usefulness.
The new gun control battle has started. And we thought we were "homefree" for a while.
Regards