Definition

Noun: - The forensic process of identifying a specific firearm: This refers to the technique of determining which particular gun fired a bullet or cartridge case. This is done by analyzing the unique, microscopic marks left on the bullet and the shell casing by the gun's barrel and firing mechanism during discharge.

Usage

• Ballistic fingerprinting is a tool used in criminal investigations to link evidence from a crime scene to a specific weapon.
• The database was created to store information for ballistic fingerprinting.
• Investigators relied on ballistic fingerprinting to connect the suspect to the shooting.

Advanced Usage

• "to run a ballistic fingerprinting analysis": to perform the specific forensic examination.
  • The lab will run a ballistic fingerprinting analysis on the recovered cartridge cases.
• The concept is sometimes referred to as "firearms fingerprinting" due to the analogy of a gun leaving unique marks, much like a human fingerprint.

Variants and Related Words

• Ballistics (n): The science of the motion of projectiles, often used more broadly to refer to the forensic analysis of firearms.
• Toolmark identification (n): A related forensic discipline involving the analysis of marks left by tools, including firearms.

Synonyms

• Firearms identification
• Forensic firearm analysis

Related Phrases

• "Ballistic fingerprinting database": A collection of images and data from fired bullets and casings used for comparison.
  • The bullet was checked against the national ballistic fingerprinting database.

Noun

1. identification of the gun that fired a bullet from an analysis of the unique marks that every gun makes on the bullet it fires and on the shell ejected from it