Test-fire all guns before sale, White urges

By Neco Cockburn, The Ottawa Citizen, August 17, 2009

Ballistics database would make it easier to ID weapons used in crimes, chief says

Ottawa’s chief of police says every gun sold in Canada should be test-fired before sale and the information entered into a national database, making it easier to identify Canadian-bought guns and bullets recovered at crime scenes.

It’s just one of several reforms Chief Vern White would like to see implemented to crack down on handgun use, shootings and armed robberies in the city.

Unique marks are left on bullets and cartridges after they are fired. This evidence can be used to link specific guns to crime scenes.

“If Canada had every gun that hit the market like that, I think it would be a huge step forward,” said White.

In addition to firing guns before they are sold, White would like to see more forces make timely use of IBIS, the Integrated Ballistics Identification System. Fired bullets and cartridges found at crime scenes are analysed by IBIS, developed by a Montreal-based company called Forensic Technology.

The information is then entered into the Canadian Integrated Ballistics Identification Network (CIBIN), a national network of IBIS systems that “collect, analyse and correlate fired bullets and cartridge cases in a central database,” according to the RCMP.

Ballistic identification was done manually in the past. The automated IBIS system narrows samples to a manageable list of likely matches that an analyst can manually verify.

In Canada, information can be uploaded to CIBIN from six IBIS instruments in Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Halifax and Regina. The U.S. has more than 200 independent IBIS terminals that are networked to form the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN).

White said increasing the ability for all police forces to use IBIS in a timely manner could improve police investigations, cut down on officers’ legwork and increase the ability of police to understand how guns move.

For example, a seized gun could be test-fired and the marks on its bullets and cartridges compared to bullets and cartridges found at a murder scene, or bullets and cartridge cases found at the scene of a shooting could be linked to others found during a previous shooting in another province.

The challenge is that there are not enough resources and capacity for police forces to get their ballistics information into the national system as early and fast as they could, said White.

“I think we’ve done OK, but it would take more resources to ramp this up more.”

White cited the speed at which fingerprints are entered into a database as an example of an effective system. White also wants tougher laws for people who illegally bring guns into Canada from the U.S.

White said penalties should be enough “to scare those who typically aren’t unlawful or criminal people who are doing these things and not seeing the end result of what they’re doing,” he said.

“If it’s a trucker, for example, I think you should lose your ability to travel between these two countries,” he said.

People caught with an illegal gun in their vehicle should lose the vehicle, White said. © Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Here is the response from Tony Bernardo, Executive Director of the Canadian Institute for Legislative Action:

To the Editor

Chief White is sadly mistaken regarding the supposed utility of the IBIS Ballistic Fingerprinting technology. Legal firearms are rarely used in crime yet these are the firearms ballistic fingerprints would be taken from, not criminal's guns. Canadian police statistics estimate that a mere 3-12% of the guns used in the commision of crimes in Canada were ever in the Canadian system. As has been recently pointed out in several publications, the vast majority of crime guns used in Canada are smuggled into the country by their users, the drug gangs.

Ballistic fingerprinting is a failed technology. In 2000, Maryland and New York both adopted ballistic fingerprinting. It has cost Maryland an estimated $60 USD per firearm to do this yet according the Maryland State Police, it has yet to result in a single crime being solved. A more recent study contracted by the California Department of Justice and conducted by the National Institute for Forensic Science reported in early 2003 that ballistic fingerprinting was impractical. Testing revealed that the computer software used to match the discharge pattern on a bullet with a specific firearm was too inaccurate to be reliable. The study tested 790 pistols firing a total of 2,000 rounds. When the cartridges used with a particular gun came from the same manufacturer, computer matching failed 38 percent of the time. When the cartridges came from different manufacturers, the failure rate rose to a whopping 62 percent. Worse yet, no part of the study accounted for normal wear changing the ballistic fingerprint over time, nor did it account for deliberate alteration of the fingerprint, an action easily accomplished with a bit of sandpaper. Chief White's time might be better served figuring out ways to tackle Ottawa's growing drug gang problem instead of musing about “magical” alternatives to his inability to tackle this growing problem.

Tony Bernardo
Executive Director
Canadian Institute for Legislative Action

Radio interview on Ottawa's 580 CFRA with John Evers, Regional Director (SW Ontario), Canadian Shooting Sports Association:

Response from Brian Stewart, Director, Canadian Shooting Sports Association:

To the Editor

Chief White is either receiving bad advice about the usefulness of the Integrated Ballistics Identification System (IBIS) or he is attempting to divert attention from Ottawa’s place at the bottom of the pack in the province for solving crimes. Two states (Maryland and California) have learned the hard way that Ballistics identification systems have been horrendously expensive and haven’t solved a single crime. Funny how much the US experience mirrors our own failed Gun Registry; does the chief support it as well? Further, the system can’t possibly work for the following reasons:

1. Shotguns don’t have a ballistics profile.
2. It takes no expert knowledge rapidly to alter a guns profile and thus render the system useless, 5 minutes and a file from Canadian Tire.
3. Normal wear and tear on a firearm is enough fool the system.
4. Well over 95% of "crime guns" are from the US and won't be profiled.

Earth to Chief White, the country is in the midst of a recession and we need to spend money wisely. Your odds of success are almost ten times greater if you go after 95+% of the problem, i.e. the criminals.

I feel obliged to respond to the popular factoid used by Det.-Const Craig Bridgeman (OPP) that 50% of "crime guns" come from legal Canadian gun owners. Firstly Det. Bridgeman was quoted in the Citizen as being "wary of gun seizure statistics, saying they 'can be massaged to say whatever it is you want to say' regarding the touchy issue of guns and gun laws." I have enclosed an access to information request that demonstrates how bogus the 50% number really is. It clearly shows how the Toronto Police Service deliberately massaged the data to get to the magic 50% number they wanted. Oddly, data from the Toronto Police services board shows less than 3% stolen from legal Canadian gun owners. The RCMP-led National Weapons Enforcement Support Team placed the number at less than 6% for Vancouver .

Attempting to blame the law abiding for the failure of law enforcement effectively to deal with criminals is counter-productive and fosters a climate of resentment and distrust between the firearms community and the police.

Brian Stewart
Director
Canadian Shooting Sports Association