theReformed

As a brief thought, I was reading some analysis materials and a white paper on ballistic forensics and how scientists are overcoming barriers to processing crime scenes involving a firearm that utilizes ballistic projectiles. As a strong proponent of our right to bear arms, responsibly, in the United States, I also find myself increasingly interested in the advancements of industry on trace ballistic evidence which can be assessed in a criminal event. There are several dozen parameters, metrics and material analysis processes that take place in the dissection of these specific type crimes, but what happens if the firearm itself leaves little or no trace other than a projectile which decimated it’s target?

From the Introduction (Page 7):

For 80 years, police have relied upon the science of “forensic ballistics” to link fired bullets and cartridge cases to each other and to crime guns in police custody. The court-tested theory has remained unchanged. Every gun leaves unique microscopic markings on the surface areas of fired bullets and cartridge cases. Experts compare these markings in an effort to identify similarities that positively link them together, subsequently concluding that the ammunition components were fired from the same gun. Until the advent of automated ballistics technology, this was a time-consuming and resource-draining process.

I am supposing that with the advent of global military development over the past 20 years of railgun and coil gun technologies, the science of ballistic forensics will have all, but disappearred in it’s current state - quite endangered at the very least when criminals begin to understand the usefulness of a weapon that has almost no discernable trace evidence.

I have no direct background in the development or operations of such hardware and you can take these statements strictly off-the-cuff, but I thought it worth noting that our current system of detection does not be suited to handle this type of event.

We’d be foolish to not consider the idea that these technologies are not already being introduced into manfacturer rifles for field testing purposes and deadly weapon powered by electromagnetic forces we cannot see and which leave no residue on the operator’s body are far off from being brought to general, non-hobbyist market. This is an assessment based off the very premises that sites for the common man exist such as the World’s Coil-gun Arsenal which encourages/promotes the basic conceptual premise on handheld coil-based weaponry. A more serious version can be seen in this video, a fabrication mock and test.

The point is, the technology saturation of a new weapon based on very finely tuned principles is becoming the reality, evidently much quicker than the forensic industry would have ever anticipated. I would surmise that the crime scene investigation industry MUST become proactive in devising new ways to capture evidence almost instantaneously - before this weaponry ever hits the streets.