تسجيل الدخول

تسجيل

FIREARMS

المؤلف:  Max M. Houck، Jay A. Siegel

المصدر:  Fundamentals of Forensic Science

الجزء والصفحة:  P548-549

2026-08-26

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FIREARMS

The field of forensic firearms examination is sometimes referred to as “ballistics” or “forensic ballistics.” This terminology is not wholly accurate: Ballistics is the study of an object in light and is under the domain of physics. The term “forensic ballistics” may be somewhat more accurate but does not capture what forensic firearms examiners do in their job. They certainly are not analyzing the trajectories of bullets while they are in light! Many of the principles, equations, and methodology of ballistics are used, for example, to reconstruct a shooting incident. But the discipline of forensic firearms science is more than that and encompasses the study of firearms, their manufacture, operation, and performance; the analysis of ammunition and its byproducts (such as muzzle-to-target distance and gunshot residue (GSR)) and the individualizing characteristics that are transferred from firearms to bullets and cartridge cases. The examination of tool marks is related to irearms in many ways but is also very different in others. It requires an understanding of the way in which tools are made and used; additionally, it includes the restoration of serial numbers that a criminal has attempted to obliterate.