GUN-PRINTING

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 156, 24 February 1932, Page 7

GUN-PRINTING

NEW SYSTEM FOR POLICp TO DETECT KILLERS CLAIMED AS INFALLIBLE. . Because the "gun-printing" of bullets and cartridges is a comparatively nqwart, the New South (Wales police have jiot attempted to guri-print every weapori issued, although oppo'rtunity to keep . abreast of the latest science in crime detection is being avail'ed of. The task of recalling every gun in New South Wales and takirig its print, as with fingergprints of criminals, would be difficult at the moment, but with further licensing of guns, the new system might be employed to actvantage. The outstanding instance of the value of 'the science of balli'stics was in the case of Browne, and Kennedy who murdered P.C. Gutteridge on a lonely road in Essex, England, in 1928. ' ' When Browne and Kennedy were arres.ted a Webley revolver was fourid in Browne's garage, and it was definitely proved, throngh the aid of "guriprinting," that the bullets found in Gutteridge's body were fired from the Webley. Man-Made Objects. It was also proved during the trial that a firearm from which a partieular bullet has been fired can be identified beyond any doubt. The system is now as infallible as the fxpg§r-print-..s^stenii ••• . t , " E The facf at .the back of iHese ietentifications is that no two, paiural or man-made objects are ever precisely the same. . . To the naked eye, they might apr pear to be, but a microscope shows differences. - Eye Deceivers. To the eye the edges of razor blades appear to be the same. Actually no two are or can be the same; the microscope shows ( them to be serrated. Iri no two rifle barrels are the riflings the same, for they have been cut by tools, whose edges change slightly with every use. Degree of Error. The markings on the breech shield of a revolver, against which ;the cartridge rests, and against which it is forced with tremendous power when fired, cannot be precisely the same in any two weapons. They "are made by hand, with the use of a file, and the human hand can never twice do precisely the same work. A bullet or shell always bears marlcs which may be called the equivalent of finger-prints, distinctive of and pe'culiar to the barrel of the weapon from which it has been fired. Tell-tale Imprints. , The scratches round the firing pinhole of the breech shield of a revolver are imprinted on the . base of every cartridge fired from it. ; A cartridge bearing that imprint can have been fired from that gun only. ( , The position now with gun-prints is that when a man is granted a license, a bullet could be fired from the gun, microscopically examined, its peeuliar markings identified, and then (with the print) could be filed away. No Escape. If later a bullet from that gun killed a man, the police would immediately know who the gun belonged to. Strange that this delicate and intricate art has not been availed of more by our detectives! • •• 'w