Where did this firearm part come from?

Gun makers have been able to escape responsibility for firearm violence.

So when a firearm comes in for disposition, if anything about that firearm is different from what we already have in the collection, we'll add it to the collection.

We try to have one example of every type of firearm make, model, finish, serial number configuration, you name it

Often times in a case we will receive images of a subject holding a particular item that looks like a firearm.

But it has been directly responsible for assisting to solve certain questions about crimes in particular, such as where did this firearm come from?

It's those microscopic individual marks that we can compare under the microscope to determine if those bullets and cartridge cases were fired by a particular firearm.

During the firearms manufacturing process, when the barrels are rifled and the breach faces are formed or milled, it's going to create individual tool marks to that firearm.

One of the tests we do here in the laboratory is silencer, or suppressor tests determining if a muzzle device actually reduces the sound that a firearm makes.

The collection has been extremely useful in criminal cases not only for an examiner's experience and education in handling nearly every firearm case that comes into the Laboratory.