Definition

Noun: * Forensic Firearm Analysis: The process of identifying the specific firearm that discharged a bullet or cartridge case by examining and comparing the unique microscopic marks (striations and impressions) left on the ammunition components by the gun's barrel, breechface, firing pin, and other parts.

Usage

• Ballistic identification is a crucial forensic technique used by law enforcement to link a bullet or shell casing found at a crime scene to a specific weapon.
• The expert testified that the ballistic identification conclusively matched the recovered bullet to the suspect's pistol.
• Advances in automated imaging systems have significantly sped up the process of ballistic identification.

Advanced Usage

• "to run a ballistic identification": To perform the forensic analysis process.
  • The lab will run a ballistic identification on all the shell casings recovered from the scene.
• "ballistic identification database": A computerized archive of digital images of ballistic evidence from crime scenes and test-fired weapons, used for comparison.
  • The bullet was entered into the national ballistic identification database to search for a match.

Variants and Related Words

• Ballistics (n): The scientific study of the dynamics of projectiles, often used more broadly to refer to firearm and ammunition analysis.
• Forensic Ballistics (n): The application of ballistics to legal questions, encompassing ballistic identification.
• Toolmark Identification (n): A related forensic discipline involving the analysis of marks left by tools, which shares methodological principles with ballistic identification.

Synonyms

• Firearm identification
• Ballistic fingerprinting
• Forensic firearm comparison

Related Phrases

• "Striation match": Refers to the agreement of parallel microscopic lines on a bullet, which is a key component of ballistic identification.
  • The examiner found a striation match between the crime scene bullet and the test-fired bullet.
• "Ejector mark comparison": A specific aspect of ballistic identification involving marks left on a cartridge case by the firearm's ejector.
  • The ejector mark comparison provided additional evidence for the ballistic identification.

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