Murderous guns in police hands

I wonder, what is the cost of this initiative to us the taxpayers? How is this different from having ballistics testing of each firearm? Everyone with a Firearm Users’ Licence (FUL) must have their firearm submitted for forensic testing — whether it’s a handgun or shotgun. Can’t a gun be tracked by its ballistics Mr Minister? In the US, guns used 20 and 30 years ago are tracked by its ballistics. Different gun manufacturers have different rifling, so in most cases, a spent shell casing and bullet could be determined to be fired from a particular gun. So exact is the science. Each firearm has unique imperfections in the barrel and thus it’s almost like a fingerprint. In fact it is referred to as Ballistic Fingerprint in the US.

The guns to have tested are the ones carried by the private security firms and police officers. You will be surprised by the amount of crime including murders that are done using police guns. Everyone knows this, yet if you check the number of police guns tested, it is a very small percentage. Remember a few years ago, a hero brother in South Trinidad was shot dead by a gun that was assigned to a police station in the east somewhere. I wonder if anyone was ever charged for this offence?

I am asking to please continue the ballistics testing of all State issued firearms and we will see how many murders are solved. And also if any gun is used in a crime, once bullets or shells are recovered, it can be accurately tracked to the particular firearm, once it is in their records.

Markie Ceasar

via e-mail