Describe ballistic fingerprinting and its limitations
What will be an ideal response?
These tests, called ballistic fingerprinting, can sometimes lead to a match between the bullet fragments and the weapon used to fire the bullet. When rifles and gun barrels are manufactured, the machines producing the barrels leave identifiable "tool" or "rifling" marks in the barrels. In these tests, the subject weapon is fired, yielding a bullet that shows the "tool" marks of the weapon. This bullet can then be compared microscopically to a bullet recovered from a crime scene, and an expert witness can make a "match". There are limitations on the usefulness of such tests. First, in the case of bullet fragments, unless the bullet recovered is substantial, marks on the bullet may match rifling marks in multiple weapons. Second, even if a substantial bullet is found at a crime scene, it is helpful only if it can be compared to weapons data maintained by law enforcement agencies.
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a. True b. False Indicate whether the statement is true or false
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Indicate whether the statement is true or false
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