Which characteristics are used to link bullets to a firearm?

Which characteristics are used to link bullets to a firearm?

• A. Only the bullet weight.
• B. Class characteristics and individual striations.
• C. The color of the bullet.
• D. The velocity alone.

Answer: (B)

When a bullet comes out of a firearm, it carries two kinds of marks from the weapon. The first are class characteristics, which come from the barrel’s rifling and other design features. These include caliber, the number of lands and grooves, the width of those grooves, and the rifling twist. These traits are shared by all guns built to the same design, so they can narrow the potential weapons down to a group that could have fired the bullet. The second type are individual marks—tiny, unique striations created by microscopic imperfections in the specific barrel (and other contact surfaces) of that particular gun. These individual marks create a distinctive signature on each bullet fired from that firearm, which can be used to link the bullet back to a single gun when a match is made with a round fired from a suspect weapon. That’s why the correct answer combines both ideas: class characteristics to narrow to a subset of guns with the same design, and individual striations to forge a more specific association with a particular firearm. Bullet weight, color, or velocity alone don’t provide a reliable link to a specific gun, since they don’t reflect the unique tool-mark pattern left by the firearm.

When a bullet comes out of a firearm, it carries two kinds of marks from the weapon. The first are class characteristics, which come from the barrel’s rifling and other design features. These include caliber, the number of lands and grooves, the width of those grooves, and the rifling twist. These traits are shared by all guns built to the same design, so they can narrow the potential weapons down to a group that could have fired the bullet.

The second type are individual marks—tiny, unique striations created by microscopic imperfections in the specific barrel (and other contact surfaces) of that particular gun. These individual marks create a distinctive signature on each bullet fired from that firearm, which can be used to link the bullet back to a single gun when a match is made with a round fired from a suspect weapon.

That’s why the correct answer combines both ideas: class characteristics to narrow to a subset of guns with the same design, and individual striations to forge a more specific association with a particular firearm. Bullet weight, color, or velocity alone don’t provide a reliable link to a specific gun, since they don’t reflect the unique tool-mark pattern left by the firearm.