Ballistics Tracking in Maryland Failed
We told them it wouldn’t work but they didn’t listen:
In its progress report on the Integrated Ballistics Identification System (IBIS), the Maryland State Police Forensic Sciences Division recommends that “this program be suspended, a repeal of the collection of cartridge cases from current law be enacted and the Laboratory Technicians associated with the program be transferred to the DNA database unit.” So far, Maryland has spent $2.5 million over the past four years, with nothing to show for it. The report admitted, “Guns found to be used in the commission of crime…are not the ones being entered into” the system.
The entire idea is silly. If I purchased a gun I knew to be tracked in the system, and if I wanted to shoot someone, I would take an oily rag coated with sand and shove it down the barrel a few times. I would then go shoot about a thousand rounds through the gun. Viola! No match to the bullet image on file.
