1. CoBIS OR Combined Ballistic Identification System.  A system where the shell casing of a bullet, (or brass) from a fired round is supplied by a gun manufacturer in an approved container shipped with a new handgun that is shipped to the NY State Police when the gun is sold or if the new handgun is shipped to the Federal Firearms License holder, the FFL takes the gun to the State Police Lab to be test fired and the lab keeps the shell casing and the fired bullet.  The shell casing is scanned into a computer data base to be compared against shell casing recovered from a crime location.  This program has has NO success in NY while costing $4,000,000 to start and an estimated $4,000,000 a year to maintain or an average cost of about $200 per legal gun.  CoBIS only collects information from legal guns that are new and have not been linked to a crime and the size of the data base in New York alone is in 10s of thousands of guns and will, within the first 3 years included almost 66,000 data files with almost 22,000 new handguns being added each year.
2. IBIS or Integrated Ballistics Identification System.  IBIS is a computer identification system that correlates and matches projectile and shell casing ballistic evidence.  It is capable of comparing both shell casings and projectiles recovered at crime scenes to weapons/evidence retrieved later.  IBIS only collects information from guns or shell casings or projectiles that have been used in a crime or are illegal guns.  It has been very successfully even though the total data base is only several thousand data files but all of them have been used in a crime.
3. NIBIN Program or National Integrated Ballistic Identification Network. The ATF's nationwide ATF Ballistics Fingerprinting Program known as NIBIN requires participating federal, state and local law enforcement officers to collect bullets and shell casings from crime scenes, bring them to trained technicians to take a microscopic digital picture of the ballistic fingerprint, and have the ballistics fingerprints entered into the IBIS computer database (Integrated Ballistic Identification System).  The NIBIN Program is expressly restricted to the ballistic imaging of data associated with crime guns. As of May, 2002, the NIBIN Program has collected 119,369, ballistic images of firearms evidence across the country. Since its implementation in 2000, the IBIS computer database has generated at least 4,429 "hits" or matches of ballistics evidence from different crime scenes.  (Or a 3.7% success rate.  At that rate NY should have had 1,113 hits so far. It has had "0".)
    WEB LINK http://www.NIBIN.gov and http://www.atf.treas.gov/nibin/missing/index.htm

• NY State CoBIS index.
• Forensic Technology Incorporated (FTI)
• HOW DOES BALLISTIC FINGERPRINTING WORK? Click for a brief animated lesson!
• Firearms ID.com, This is a great web site with lots of good info.
• The Sight 1911-A1, Here are some useful resources in countering the "ballistic fingerprinting" lies

    In 1999, Gov. Mario Pataki had passed and signed several gun laws.  These laws were written without any input from any one in the NY State shooting community or any debate or research.  They were all passed as feel good measures so that Gov. Mario Pataki could appear later at a Million Mom March along with Sen. H****** R**** C****** and Sen. UpChuck Schumer and talk about the gun control laws he had passed and appeal for votes from the anti-gun ranks normally the domain of the Democrats.  These laws were introduced in the last 3 days of the state legislative session using special powers the Governor has and were passed with no hearings, debate and in fact, many members did not have time to even read the legislation.  While many would have supported most of the laws, because no one who was knowable about firearms was consulted, all of the laws contain minor problems that have a major impact that make most of the sections of the new law unacceptable.
     SECTION 4, BALLISTIC IDENTIFICATION DATA BANK is the section that started the NY State CoBIS program.  Funded with an initial $4,000,000, additional funding has been $4,000,000 a year but some cost are hidden in the yearly NY State budget so the true cost of the program can not be determined.  The program started on March 1, 2001 and about 2,568 guns are added each month on average but that number ranges from a little over 1,100 to over 4,353 in some months. It cost almost $200 a gun to add the information to the data base and in the first 3 years of the program NOT ONE GUN has been linked to even one crime, much less solved a crime.
     Even the value of a matching a gun to a crime is unknown. Because this matching technique has never been used in a court, no one can say that a match could be used as evidence in a case. The only hope would be that when the police trace a gun to a person then that person would still have the gun, (that had not been altered,) and the gun could then be tested and the results from that test used as evidence in a trial. Even if the match was accepted, it would be almost impossible to prove the "chain of custody" that would be required for the evidence to be accepted in court.
     Other problems that would have to be dealt with even if the criminal does not alter the gun to change the marking is what is to prevent a criminal from using reloaded brass? That shell casing would have the marks from two or more guns. What is to prevent a criminal from going to a range and picking up fired brass and planting it at a crime?

The Future
      After the first three years it has to be obvious to everyone that this program is a failure and a waste of money. One can only wonder how many crimes could have been solved if the money and thousands of State Police man hours had been used to solve real crimes involving real criminals instead of keeping track of data of legally owned guns owned by licensed gun owners that might, some day be used in a crime involving a random shooting where the only link between the crime and the gun is the fired brass. Even with the total failure of this program, the anti-gunners are pushing to expand the program to include all rifles and shotguns and the bullet from guns that do not automatically eject the fired brass.

WHAT DOES THE NY CoBIS PROGRAM COST?

The following is an e-mail that I got from Senator Maziarz' office :

1/30/03
George,

Here is the information you requested from me on CoBIS:
Info as of 10-24-02
Guns test fired by the NYS Police: 5,528
Shell casings from manufacturer's sent to the NYS Police: 25,762
Number of manufacturer's complying to NYS CoBIS (Nationwide): 48
Amount of Money Budgeted for CoBIS:
$4 million for FY '01-'02, 30 new positions were added to the NYS Police.
$4 million for FY '02-'03
FY '03-'04 has not happened yet but funding levels will probably stay the same.
I received this information from the New York State Police, XXXXXX-XXXX

If you have any other questions please let me know. I hope this information is helpful to you.
Sincerely,

Gary J. Rouleau
Senator George D. Maziarz
62nd, R-C-I Senatorial District
518-455-2024

Year	Spent	Total	1/24/05 - I have talked to someone with DCJS and these are the numbers that they gave me for the cost of the Program. They differ from those that Sen. Maziarz gave me in that between 01 and 03 the program was budged for $ 8,000,000 while this information shows that they only spent $ 5,200,000. I wonder what happened to the other $ 2,800,000?     It is almost impossible for me to tell who is right and who is wrong. Administrators of programs that are questionable, like CoBIS, try to reduce the apparent cost of the program. I have FOILed the NY State Police and I hope to find out what some of the real numbers are.
99 - 00	$ 1,000,000	$ 1,000,000
00 - 01	$ 4,000,000	$ 5,000,000
01 - 02	$ 2,600,000	$ 7,600,000
02 - 03	$ 2,600,000	$ 10,200,000
03 - 04	$ 1,500,000	$ 11,700,000
04 - 05	$ 1,500,000	$ 13,200,000

     I have also found a Cached Copy of the 2001 budget on the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee web site that contains the following line: "State Police: ... $4,000,000 and 30 new positions to establish the new "Gun DNA" Ballistic Identification Databank,...

     SUMMARY:   Automated computer matching systems do not provide conclusive results.  Rather a list of potential candidates are presented that must be manually reviewed.  When applying this technology to the concept of mass sampling of manufactured firearms, a huge inventory of potential candidates will be generated for manual review.  This study indicates the this number of candidate cases will be so large as to be impractical and will likely create logistic complications so great that they cannot be effectively addressed.

SECTION 4, BALLISTIC IDENTIFICATION DATA BANK

OTHER ARTICLES

LINKS TO ARTICLES
WITHOUT FACTS AND INFORMATION

• Statement by Sarah Brady on the Sniper Shootings, 10/8/02
  LINK: http://www.bradycampaign.org/press/release.asp?Record=429 (Please note that article states that "We have already seen the usefulness of ballistic tests in definitively linking six of the eight shootings to the same firearm."  This quote relates to the IBIS program, not any existing CoBIS type program.  Also "assault rifles" referred to in this article has nothing to do with the discussion. It is irrelevant what type of firearm the killer is using.  In fact some bolt action rifles or handguns would be the best choice.  Does it matter more what gun is being used or what type of car, van or truck is being used?  If we find out that a white Dodge van is being used should we pass a law to ban white Dodge vans except for the police or say that all white Dodge vans must have a gas tank less than 5 gallons?)
• SCHUMER: ATF STUDY PROVES EFFICACY OF GUN FINGERPRINTING; BUSH MUST ACT NOW TO BACK NATIONAL BALLISTIC FINGERPRINT SYSTEM, October 18, 2002  (Note that Sen. UpChuck Schumer is comparing IBIS that works with CoBIS that does not work.)
• New Yorkers Against Against Gun Violence, (Calling for the) EXPANSION OF NEW YORK STATE COMBINED BALLISTIC IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM (CoBIS) to include: all projectiles from all guns sold to New York State residents that do not eject casings when fired; and all shell casings from all rifles and shotguns.

LINKS TO ARTICLES
WITH FACTS AND INFORMATION

• Ballistic Imaging: Not Ready for Prime Time, Policy Backgrounder No. 160, April 30, 2003 by David B. Kopel., & H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D. for the NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS.
• Ballistic Fingerprinting vs. Citizen Homeland Defense, Miguel A. Faria Jr., M.D., Oct. 21, 2002
• "Ballistic Fingerprinting" -- The Maryland Example:Costing Taxpayers Without Benefiting Law Enforcement, NRA Fact Sheet, Posted: 10/21/2002
• Pink Pistols Say Media's Sniper Reporting Off-Target
• New tool for gun opponents
• TRACKING FIREARMS, October 18, 2002, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, PBS (And before you rush into it, you sit down and you figure the cost and you figure the benefits. And you say what would we do with the money if we didn't spend it on this.)
• Ballistics Fingerprinting: A Waste of Time, BusinessWeek, 10/24/02,
• THE FANTASY OF GUN FINGERPRINTS, By STEVEN MILLOY , NYPOST.COM, October 28, 2002
• Gun 'fingerprinting' plan raises privacy fears, By Ron Franscell, Denver Post Staff Writer, October 29, 2002 Imagine this: To make it easier to solve future crimes, the federal government collects every American man, woman and child's fingerprints, DNA and handwriting and stores them in an enormous national database.
• Department of Justice, February 2002, MITRETEK TECHNICAL REPORT, Ballistic Identification Capability Modeling, A Guide for State Program Establishment. The report ends with the following paragraph and was written before the California Report concluded that the technology had serious problems. California never implemented the program.
  

  This handbook and the planning model do not address the performance and reliability of specific ballistic image capture and matching algorithms and approaches. A separate study, similar to the California Department of Justice feasibility study, would be needed to address the merits of the technology and the technical approaches currently available commercially or in research laboratories.

  IBIS Data Acquisition Station (DAS) Remote Workstation cost $250,000

• http://www.troopers.state.ny.us/Introduction/Annual_Reports/2001/01Admin.pdf

CLICK HERE TO SEE LARGER PICTURE

CLICK HERE TO SEE A LARGER PICTURE (This picture contains errors.)

Gun DNA and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. connection
This is part of an article: Ballistic 'fingerprint' database isn't foolproof tool, experts say
System unable to account for stolen firearms, wear
CLICK HERE FOR THE WHOLE ARTICLE

     "Bullets are made from a variety of metals, including lead, copper and steel. Many leave plating, or metal residue, in the gun barrels as they pass through. Sometimes this can cause slight changes inside the barrel, which over time changes the markings on the bullets that are fired, Robinson said.  "You have wear, use and abuse. When you fire a gun you're rubbing two metals together over high pressure and over high heat, and that's going to change things," he said.
      Robinson was part of a team of ballistics experts that in 1997 analyzed the Remington 30.06 rifle that police believe was used in the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.  Despite 18 test firings and use of high-powered microscopes, the team could not match the rifle with the bullet that killed King, Robinson said.  The 18 test bullets each had different types of markings.  "Every test bullet was different because it was going over plating created by the previous bullet," he said.
      Robinson and others also pointed out that even when a gun can be tracked, it may not identify a suspect because it could have been stolen from the original owner."

FROM FOX NEWS: How Reliable Is Ballistic Fingerprinting?
Friday, October 18, 2002 By Steven Milloy

 The sniper spree in the Washington, D.C., area has spawned calls for "ballistic fingerprinting" of firearms.  Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., announced he would introduce legislation for a national program. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence told The Washington Post that ballistic fingerprinting would have "solved this crime after the first shooting." But an October 2001 report by California state ballistics experts -- hushed up by the California attorney general's office -- concludes that ballistic fingerprinting isn't feasible right now.
      Ballistic fingerprinting involves sending a fired bullet and empty cartridge casing from a gun to a government agency before that gun can be sold. The idea is to match -- preferably by automated computer analysis -- pre-sale ballistics data with crime scene data.  Maryland and New York already require ballistic fingerprinting. So far it hasn't helped convict a single criminal in Maryland despite "fingerprinting" 17,000 guns sold since January 2000. New York hasn't had success either.  And there isn't likely to be success any time soon, according to the study.
      The report included the test firing of more than 2,000 rounds from 790 pistols.  When cartridges from the same manufacturer were test-fired and compared, computer matching failed 38 percent of the time. With cartridges from different manufacturers, computer matching failed 62 percent of the time.  "Automated computer matching systems do not provide conclusive results" requiring that "potential candidates be manually reviewed," said the experts.  But the experts estimated a California database would grow by about 108,000 entries every year for pistols alone. "This study indicates that this number of candidate cases will be so large as to be impractical and will likely create logistic complications so great that they cannot be effectively addressed," they said.  The test-firing results only scratch the surface of ballistic fingerprinting's problems.
      The experts concluded it's unknown whether cartridges fired after typical firearm break-in and wear can at all be matched to the cartridge fired when the gun was new.  "Firearms that generate markings on cartridge casings can change with use and can also be readily altered by the users," said the experts. "They are not permanently defined like fingerprints or DNA."  A file may be used to make scratch marks in a barrel or a breech face, and various parts may be replaced to give a firearm a completely new ballistic identity. Bullets may be treated to alter the machining marks in a barrel.  Not all guns even generate markings on cartridge casings.  Further, "fired cartridge casings are much easier to correlate than fired bullets," noted the experts. Because bullets are severely damaged on impact, they can only be examined manually.  Moreover, Americans already own more than 200 million guns; those won't be included in any ballistics database. 
      Hiding behind the sniper shootings and calling for ballistic fingerprinting -- is the gun control lobby.  "The [sniper] shootings are a perfect example of how valuable complete ballistic fingerprinting would be," said a spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.   "Doesn't it make sense for us to give law enforcement the tools they need in order to solve such crimes?" asked Sarah Brady of the Brady Campaign. 
      Perhaps -- if ballistic fingerprinting worked. What gun control advocates really want is the proven result of ballistic fingerprinting -- reduced gun sales.  The Maryland law reduced 2001 handgun sales to their lowest level in 10 years. Handgun sales have continued to drop in 2002, according to the Maryland State Police.  Gun control advocates are fogging debate by claiming a July 2001 report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms found computerized ballistic fingerprints currently available to federal law enforcement officials produced 8,800 ballistics matches with 17,600 crime scenes during 2000-2001.  But the ATF report only involved standard matching of crime scene evidence with post-crime ballistic testing. This is quite different from comparing crime scene with pre-sale ballistics.
      Shockingly, the California experts were silenced by California's pro-gun control Attorney General Bill Lockyer. One panel member said he was gagged by the AG's office, not only about the study, but about the entire topic.  The AG's office acknowledged in an interview it favored a ballistics fingerprinting system and denigrated its study as "preliminary" pending a review by a lone European expert. No explanation was offered for not having FBI, ATF or other U.S. ballistic experts review the report.  The Bush administration has opposed ballistics fingerprinting on a national level, but this week committed to more study of the idea -- the same sensible recommendation made by the California experts.  As it stands now, ballistic fingerprinting only promotes the agenda of gun control activists, not the agenda more in the public interest, that of law enforcement.

Steven Milloy is the publisher of JunkScience.com , an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute and the author of Junk Science Judo: Self-defense Against Health Scares and Scams (Cato Institute, 2001).

Gun 'Fingerprinting' Debated
Experts: weapons can be altered
By Robert Cooke, STAFF WRITER, October 22, 2002
Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.

     The idea of tracing guns back to the people who use them is as elusive as it is enticing. One idea under discussion is to make guns traceable via "fingerprinting," testing every gun before it leaves the manufacturer for the unique marks it leaves on bullets and casings. Prominent supporters of such a nationwide "ballistic fingerprint" system include the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Million Mom March. But forensics experts warn that devising such a system, even though it seems logical, is likely to be unreliable. That's because guns can be easily altered. And, of course, millions of unsampled guns are already in people's hands.
      To change the kinds of marks a firing pin and a breach block make on a brass cartridge, for example, only simple tools and little skill are needed. Also, the gun's barrel can be rebored, honed or simply allowed to rust, and the marks it leaves on a bullet change. Firearms analysis now in use involves, in addition to the weapon's caliber, examining the cartridge size and powder load, the number of grooves and lands in what's known as the rifling of the barrel, even the direction of the rifling. This is useful because each brand of gun has its own characteristics. Beyond that, each individual gun leaves its own unique "signature" on the ammunition it uses.
      The term "rifling" refers to the spiral pattern of grooves lining the inside of the barrel, which impart a spinning motion on the bullet to keep it stable in flight.   When a gun is fired, this grooved rifling tends to cut scratch marks in the bullet, said Walter Rowe, professor of forensic science at George Washington University in Washington.  And because the bore of each gun barrel has slight imperfections, bullets fired from the same gun bear the same striations. But, a barrel can be regrooved, or get rusty, changing the marks cut into the bullet. Steel-encased or armor-piercing bullets also show far less visible marks because of their hardness, compared with lead bullets. Gun parts such as firing pins and breach blocks, or bolts, are usually hand-finished, so each can leave slightly different markings on the shell casing. But this, too, can be altered with common tools. Shell extractor and ejection mechanisms also can leave identifying scratch-like marks on the shell casing.
     Expanding the forensic tool kit with firearms fingerprinting is certain to be costly, said Greg MacAleese, a former policeman and now president of Law Enforcement Technologies Inc. in Colorado. "There are problems with how much it's going to cost to develop and implement" such a complex system, he said. But he does expect progress. Rowe argues that for now fingerprinting "is a half-baked idea." "There are too many ways to compromise such a system and render it ineffective," said Rowe, a chemist. "It doesn't require a lot of work or a lot of skill" to subvert a system that might identify guns and ammunition.
     Many police departments are already participating in a system designed to spot guns used in multiple crimes. In a cooperative arrangement between the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and numerous local police departments, a project called NIBIN is already using some of the "ballistic fingerprinting" techniques, such as the marks found on bullets. NIBIN, for National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, involves computerized sharing of crime data on guns and ammunition. It allows law enforcement agencies to link crimes, and sometimes collar suspects. For example, images of bullets recovered from different crime scenes can be compared in the national computer system. Or a gun recovered from a crime scene can be fired, its slug and cartridge recovered, and compared to thousands of other images in the system. The NIBIN system has enabled law enforcement agencies to discover links, for example, when the same gun has been used in multiple crimes, even in different states.
     The idea of "marking" black and smokeless powder chemically also has been explored, and essentially discarded. Too many bullets are made each year, powder is often sold in bulk and distributed among hobbyists, and chemical marking can adversely change the properties of gunpowder.
Bullets Tell the Story, Sometimes
No two guns, even of the same make and model, will leave identical marks on fired rounds due to nuances of manufacturing, use and abuse. Though police can track down a gun by examining its "fingerprints" on bullets and casings found at crime scenes and in ballistic databases, experienced criminals can still thwart the system. Here's an explainer of firearm fingerprinting's promises and failures.
ON THE CASING
What Cops Look For:
Striations: As a spent round ejects from the gun, distinctive scratches are etched into the casing.
Firing pin imprint: When the gun's firing pin strikes the round's detonator cap, it leaves an indentation. The size, shape and depth of the indentation can reveal much about the gun.
What Criminals Do:
Remove casings from scene
File down or replace firing pin to change imprint left on round.
ON THE BULLET
What Cops Look For:
Rifling pattern: When a gun is fired, spiraling grooves in the barrel cause the moving bullet to spin, which helps it fly farther and straighter. These grooves, called rifling, also scar the bullet with unique marks that can be matched with the gun.
What Criminals Do:
Rebore or shorten gun barrel to change rifling. Use bullets of harder metal, which resist rifling marks.
SOURCE: firearmsID.com; staff reporting

NY ballistic database firing blanks?
By MICHAEL HILL
Associated Press Writer

June 3, 2004, 3:26 PM EDT

ALBANY, N.Y. -- A database designed to match handguns in New York state to crime scene evidence has not solved a crime more than three years after its debut.
      Pataki administration officials cite difficulties local police can face in getting crime scene evidence to Albany, where the database is housed. But state officials say they are close to solving the problem through a deal that would allow inquiries made around New York to piggyback on a federal ballistic network.
      Since March 2001, identifying information about each new pistol and revolver sold in New York has been entered into the Combined Ballistic Identification System database. Under the system, called CoBIS for short, new guns are fired, casings are collected and the minute markings are cataloged by a computer.
      Law enforcement officials say the unique markings are like gun "fingerprints" and that bullet casings recovered from crime scenes can potentially be matched with the more than 53,000 guns entered into New York's database.
      New York and Maryland are the only states operating such databases. Federal law enforcement officials run a different sort of database containing information on guns used in crimes, as opposed to new guns.
      The federal National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, called NIBIN, has been credited with thousands of "hits," many of them yielding investigative information. Maryland's database, five months older than New York's, has posted six hits based on more than 160 queries, according to Maryland state police.
      New York's database has produced no hits from 203 queries.
      Proponents of ballistic databases say New York's system is still relatively young and that it could take years before new, legally purchased guns are used in crimes.
      New York criminal justice officials said there is a logistical hurdle, too. Since the CoBIS station is at state police headquarters in Albany, investigators in cities like Buffalo or Watertown must transport crime scene casings to Albany for testing.
      State officials hope to make their system more accessible by using the eight federal NIBIN stations around New York as entry points for evidence. But federal regulations bar information on new guns from being entered into that system _ rules attributed to the influence of gun advocates concerned over central registries.
      Pataki administration officials say they reached a deal with federal officials that would allow crime scene information to be transmitted one-way to the NIBIN station at state police headquarters in Albany. It would then pass through a firewall to the state-run system, where the actual matching would be done.
      ATF spokeswoman Sheree Mixell said there is no final agreement yet. But she said talks were continuing with law enforcement officials in New York to assist them in a way that does not violate the law.
      Jessica Scaperotti, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, said the Pataki administration is confident that the federal partnership will help realize the "tremendous potential" of CoBIS.
      "Gun fingerprinting has the power to provide powerful evidence that can solve crimes," she said.
      While the administration expects the arrangement to result in new investigative leads, it's not likely to dampen the long-running dispute over ballistic databases. In New York, a recently filed lawsuit challenging the $1.5 million-a-year system alleges that it violates the privacy of gun owners. Others have questioned whether the databases in New York and Maryland will ever be effective.
      Walter Rowe, a professor of forensic science at George Washington University, said there are too many ways to get around New York's database. Criminals can buy guns in neighboring states or simply take a file to the gun's breech face, essentially changing the gun's unique "signature."
      "If one does a cost benefit analysis, this might not have been a wise way to spend public money," Rowe said.
      Eric Gorovitz of The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence disputed the contention that criminals can easily foil the database with a file given the wide array of markings the computer looks at.
      "Even if they did succeed in doing it once in a while, it's still a tool you don't otherwise have," Gorovitz said. "Nobody says, 'People wear gloves. We shouldn't a have a fingerprint database,' It's a preposterous suggestion."
      Gorovitz believes a major problem with ballistic databases is that only New York and Maryland have one. They need to be more widespread to be effective, he said.
      Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press

$4,000,000 YEARLY BUDGET /12 = $333,333.33 A MONTH
(These numbers are based on numbers provide by members of the NY Senate.
NY DCJS has provided a totally different set of numbers.
See above"WHAT DOES THE NY CoBIS PROGRAM COST?"

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012