This is funny. The article reads Police Using Gun Database to Fight Crime
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Orlando police have a new plan to catch violent criminals. They're now using a gun database similar to a DNA database to track down guns used in crimes and the people who pulled the trigger. The police have already had some success with it. The Orlando-based Florida Department of Law Enforcement lab at matched up a cartridge casing used in a homicide last month in Orlando to another gun crime in Orange County.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Orlando police have a new plan to catch violent criminals. They're now using a gun database similar to a DNA database to track down guns used in crimes and the people who pulled the trigger.
The police have already had some success with it. The Orlando-based Florida Department of Law Enforcement lab at matched up a cartridge casing used in a homicide last month in Orlando to another gun crime in Orange County.
Notice, they've not caught anyone, they just were able to link two crimes together. The killer is still at large (or at least not charged with the crime), but millions of dollars later we can know the gun he used has been used elsewhere. It doesn't even guarantee the same guy shot it.
Don't get me wrong. I have no problems with the police doing what they can with expended cartridges and guns confiscated through true crime usage then trying to track the path of a firearm and catch the bad guys. Even a database of markings that might help doesn't bother me so long as the data is only gathered from crime scenes and not simply every gun sold or whatever.
However, I've yet to see a trend of success stories with these techniques. Especially given that the article says
FDLE has been comparing casings in the Orlando lab since 2001 to try and link crimes and catch the criminals who fired the gun. They work old cases first and then focus on new ones, but the lab is backed up and it's expected to take two years to clear all the cases currently in the system.
Now, imagine if instead of just guns found at crime scenes they decided to force printing on every gun bought and sold.
2 years would be considered instantaneous if that were the case.