Firearms

This event brought together practitioners and researchers to enhance information-sharing and promote collaboration among the impression, pattern, and trace evidence analysts, law enforcement, and legal communities.

The symposium was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence January 22-25, 2018.

Review the conference proceedings (pdf, 161 pages).

This event brought together practitioners and researchers to enhance information-sharing and promote collaboration among the impression, pattern, and trace evidence analysts, law enforcement, and legal communities.

The symposium was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence January 22-25, 2018.

Review the conference proceedings (pdf, 161 pages).

This event brought together practitioners and researchers to enhance information-sharing and promote collaboration among the impression, pattern, and trace evidence analysts, law enforcement, and legal communities.

The symposium was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence January 22-25, 2018.

Review the conference proceedings (pdf, 161 pages).

This event brought together practitioners and researchers to enhance information-sharing and promote collaboration among the impression, pattern, and trace evidence analysts, law enforcement, and legal communities.

The symposium was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence January 22-25, 2018.

Review the conference proceedings (pdf, 161 pages).

This event brought together practitioners and researchers to enhance information-sharing and promote collaboration among the impression, pattern, and trace evidence analysts, law enforcement, and legal communities.

The symposium was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence January 22-25, 2018.

Review the conference proceedings (pdf, 161 pages).

Welcome to our virtual poster session! The Forensic Technology Center of Excellence (FTCoE) would like to highlight student research in the forensic sciences! The FTCoE is grateful for all the universities, faculty, and students who took the time to prepare poster presentations for submission to this year’s event. We recognize your hard work, and we are here to celebrate and learn from your research.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on September 22, 2022.

Firearms identification is undergoing a major change in capability with the adoption of optical topography, which provides a 3D view of the surface of a bullet or cartridge case to capture the full range of subclass and individual characteristics.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on January 10, 2018.
 

A team of researchers from West Virginia University’s Department Forensic and Investigative Science will discuss emerging methods for identification of organic and inorganic gunshot residues. Fast electrochemical, spectroscopic techniques, and LC/MS are presented as effective approaches to streamline gunshot residue investigations.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on November 20, 2019.

This webinar will discuss the challenges and opportunities regarding the implementation of the NIBIN program. The NIBIN program has the potential to find links in cases involving firearms that can quickly assist in an investigation.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on January 24, 2019.

In this study, firearms examiners were asked to use traditional microscopic methods to identify unknown bullets to the appropriate barrels. Additionally, 3D scans of these bullets were used in a matching algorithm to find similarity scores between bullets. Error rates were determined and the potential for subclass carry-over among the barrels was evaluated. 

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on December 16, 2021.

This webinar will expand examiners' awareness of additional areas of interest for identification purposes. Two previously undocumented toolmarks were observed in Glock pistols and could potentially be used for other make/model pistols. These new toolmarks will expand an examiner’s ability to compare fired and unfired ammunition components to each other or to a suspect firearm.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on December 12, 2021.

This study assesses the production of subclass characteristics during the manufacturing of breech faces. Observations on how well subclass characteristics persist on manufactured breech faces with and without any finishing methods as well as the effect of the primer on the quality/quantity of the breech face impressions will be discussed.    

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on December 9, 2021.

In the third webinar, participants will be introduced to the use of PMCT for examining decedents with gunshot wounds, both homicidal and self-inflicted.  At the New Mexico OMI, a PMCT scan is performed in virtually all gunshot wound (GSW) related deaths.  In cases of suspected homicide or suspicious suicides, autopsy is also performed.  However, in non-suspicious cases involving self-inflicted GSW, PMCT is combined with an external examination, and sometimes a partial autopsy to retrieve a retained projectile, replacing the full autopsy.