An independent research study contracted by California Department of Justice now confirms the conclusion from its Bureau of Forensic Science, calling ballistic fingerprinting "impractical" as a crime fighting tool and stating that no such technology for it exists today.

Maryland mandated ballistic profiling of all handguns in its Gun Safety Act of 2000. California soon followed when its legislature enacted a law requiring officials to evaluate the feasibility of ballistic fingerprinting there. But gun control advocates were shocked when California's Bureau of Forensic Science presented a report dated October 1, 2001, that panned the idea as infeasible.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer withheld the report's official submission to legislature while ballistic fingerprinting backers scrambled to find anyone who would declare it a success. But when the only rebuttals were submitted by organizations having a financial or political stake in the mandates, California DOJ was forced to seek an objective outside review. It contracted the National Institute for Forensic Science, whose Ballistics Section Head, Dr. Jan De Kinder, in Brussels, has just submitted his report back to California DOJ.

Dr. De Kinder's report independently validates the work of California's Bureau of Forensic Science, which tested software made by Forensic Technology, Inc. (FTI) on shell cases from 792 new Smith & Wesson pistols from California Highway Patrol. Even with these few guns, FTI's software totally failed to match shell cases to guns 63% of the time. Both BATF and FTI protested that the software might have worked had the tests been performed using a special ammunition to make it easier for matching algorithms to succeed. But De Kinder's report pans these protests as in effect trying to rig the results. He points out that nobody will have control over what ammunition a criminal might use in a crime gun, and concludes: "No technology designed specifically for ballistic fingerprinting exists for the moment."

The FTI software that failed these tests is called IBIS, the same program that has caused lawful handguns sales to drop in Maryland because manufacturers cannot meet unique state standards. IBIS has cost Maryland tax payers over $5 million, yet solved no crime in its two years of use.

News that scientists consider ballistic fingerprinting an expensive failure comes as Bob Ehrlich takes office as Maryland Governor, having run a campaign that promised a review of gun laws.