Kohl, Feinstein Ballistics Bill Combats Gun Violence with Technology
- Legislation Also Steps Up Enforcement of Existing Federal Gun Laws -
March 29, 2000

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) today introduced the Ballistics, Law Assistance, and Safety Technology Act (BLAST) to give law enforcement enhanced technology to solve crimes and devote more prosecutors solely to enforcing existing federal firearms laws. BLAST makes ballistics, or “gun prints,” the centerpiece of a crime-fighting strategy by requiring federal firearms manufacturers and importers to test fire all new firearms and make the ballistic images available to federal law enforcement. BLAST also expands “Project Exile,” a successful Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) program which has reduced violent crime through the aggressive enforcement of existing federal firearms laws.

“The BLAST bill will enhance a revolutionary new technology and tap the vast potential of ballistics as a law enforcement weapon. At the same time, BLAST recognizes that new crime solving instruments are worthless unless prosecutors are in place to punish violent offenders to the fullest extent of the law. This legislation will open the door to an extraordinary crime fighting science and slam the door on hard core criminals,” Senator Kohl said.

"This bill provides law enforcement with two important tools in the fight against gun violence," Senator Feinstein said. "First, the bill takes advantage of rapidly developing technology to provide 'gun fingerprinting' to law enforcement across the country. This will directly result in more crimes solved, and more criminals behind bars. And second, the bill dramatically expands upon the success of Project Exile, a program that lets criminals know beyond a doubt that if they use a gun in a crime, they will go to jail for a long, long time."

Just as every person has a unique fingerprint, each gun leaves unique markings on discharged bullets and shell casings. Over the past decade, new technology has allowed for the comparison of those gun prints with bullets found at crime scenes. By keeping a computerized image of each new gun’s fingerprint, police can compare the microscopic differences in markings left by each gun until they find a match. Once a match is found, law enforcement can begin tracing that weapon from its original sale to the person who used it to commit the crime.

BLAST requires federal firearms manufacturers and importers to test fire all new firearms and make the ballistics images available to federal law enforcement; requires federal law enforcement officials to test fire all firearms in their custody; and provides financial support to communities that include ballistics testing as a critical part of their comprehensive anti-crime strategy, building on the model used by ATF in the Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative.

The burden on manufacturers is minimal and the assistance to law enforcement is considerable. To protect law abiding hunters and sportsmen from any misuse of the ballistics database by government, the BLAST bill explicitly prohibits ballistics information from being used for any purpose unless it is necessary for the investigation of a gun crime. Eighty million dollars over four years is authorized to fund the ballistics portion of the BLAST bill.

In addition to supplying the nation’s police with enhanced ballistics technology, BLAST gives federal prosecutors the resources they need to put more felons behind bars by expanding the “Project Exile” program. By authorizing $20 million over four years, BLAST would fund gun prosecutors in 50 cities -- prosecutors, who will work in conjunction with state and local authorities, devoted solely to the aggressive enforcement of the federal gun laws.

“Project Exile” already enjoys widespread support -- from the industry to leaders on both sides of the political aisle to the National Rifle Association, which has pointed to Project Exile as a model for fighting gun crime. BLAST will expand the success of EXILE across the country and provide the resources to every city interested in aggressively pursuing gun crimes. Felons will know that if they commit a crime with a gun they will pay the price.

Statistics underscore the significance of ballistics in pursuing gun crimes but illustrate that the technology is severely underutilized. Since the early 1990's, more than 250 crime labs and law enforcement agencies in over 40 states have been operating independent ballistics systems maintained by either the ATF or the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Together, ATF’s Integrated Ballistics Identification System (“IBIS”) and the FBI’s DRUGFIRE system have been responsible for linking 5,700 guns to two or more crimes where corroborating evidence was otherwise lacking. To date, however, not enough guns are test fired before they are sold, not enough communities have access to ballistic databases and not enough information is shared between law enforcement agencies of different jurisdictions.