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Ballistic fingerprinting refers to a set of forensic techniques that rely on marks that firearms leave on bullets to match a bullet to the gun it was fired with. It is a subset of forensic ballistics (the application of ballistics to legal questions) and internal ballistics (the study of events between the firing of a gun and the bullet leaving the barrel).〔 ==History== Rifling, which first made an appearance in the 15th century, is the process of making grooves in gun barrels that imparts a spin to the projectile for increased accuracy and range. Bullets fired from rifled weapons acquire a distinct signature of grooves, scratches, and indentations which are of value for matching a fired projectile to a firearm. The first firearms evidence identification can be traced back to England in 1835 when the unique markings on a bullet taken from a victim were matched with a bullet mould belonging to the suspect. When confronted with the damning evidence, the suspect confessed to the crime. Alexandre Lacassagne was the first scientist to try to match an individual bullet to a gun barrel. The first court case involving firearms evidence took place in 1902 when a specific gun was proven to be the murder weapon. The expert in the case had read about firearm identification, and had a gunsmith test-fire the alleged murder weapon into a wad of cotton wool. A magnifying glass was used to match the bullet from the victim with the test bullet. Calvin Goddard, physician and ex-army officer, acquired data from all known gun manufacturers in order to develop a comprehensive database. With his partner, Charles Waite, he catalogued the results of test-firings from every type of handgun made by 12 manufacturers. Waite also invented the comparison microscope. With this instrument, two bullets could be laid adjacent to one another for comparative examination. In 1925 Goddard wrote an article for the ''Army Ordnance'' titled "Forensic Ballistics" in which he described the use of the comparison microscope regarding firearms investigations. He is generally credited with the conception of the term "forensic ballistics," though he later admitted it to be an inadequate name for the science. In 1929 the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre led to the opening of the first independent scientific crime detection laboratory in the United States. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ballistic fingerprinting」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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