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Firearm Examination: A NIST Scientific Foundation Review
This is an image of a 35 Remington caliber, microgroove rifled barrel manufactured by the Marlin Firearms Company. It shows a 20 land and groove barrel with a right hand twist. The image was taken with a Nikon D1X camera using f22 and a 1/30 ss. The bore of the barrel was lighted with a standard bore light.
This report reviews the scientific foundations of firearm examination, a forensic technique used to compare the marks on bullets and cartridge cases under a comparison microscope with the those from a suspected firearm used in a crime.
Report
The draft report will be made available on this page for public comment in the coming months. Make sure to subscribe to the Forensic Science Gov Delivery email updates to receive the announcement when the public comment window opens.
The report will include the following parts:
- Firearm Examination: A NIST Scientific Foundation Review (NISTIR 8353) – draft
- (NISTIR 8353sup1) History of Firearm Examination
- (NISTIR 8353sup2) Difficulty Surveys for Firearm Examination Data Sets
- (NISTIR 8353sup3) Published Criticisms of Firearm Examination and Community Responses
- (NISTIR 8353sup4) New Technologies for Firearm Examination
- (NISTIR 8353sup5) Consecutively Matching Striae
- (NISTIR 8353sup6) Firearm Examination References – currently >900 references
- (NISTIR 8353sup7) Table of Results Surveyed
Presentations
- AAFS 2024 A New Black Box Study – Part II: Bullets (NIST/Noblis). Austin Hicklin, Nicole Richetelli, Melissa Taylor, & Robert Thompson
- AFTE 2023, Update on Proficiency Studies, Theory of Identification, Validation and Statistical Analysis. Gregory S. Klees, Steven P. Lund, Theodore V. Vorburger, John M. Butler, Robert Thompson, Heather Waltke & Wayne Arendse
- AAFS 2023 Results from a Review of the Scientific Foundations of Firearm Examination. Theodore V. Vorburger, Wayne Arendse, John M. Butler, Gregory S. Klees, Steve Lund, Robert M. Thompson, Heather Waltke, Shannan Williams, & James Yen. American Academy of Forensic Sciences 75th Anniversary Conference, Orlando .
- NIJ-FTCOE 2022 A Review of the Scientific Foundations of Firearm Examination and Related Research. Theodore V. Vorburger, Wayne Arendse, John M. Butler, Gregory S. Klees, Steve Lund, Robert M. Thompson, Heather Waltke, Shannan Williams, & James Yen. NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence, Firearm and Toolmarks Policy and Practice Forum.
- AAFS 2021 Review of the Scientific Foundations for Firearm Examination. Ted Vorburger, S.P. Lund, H.E. Waltke, R.M. Thompson, J.H. Yen, S. Williams-Mitchem, J.M. Butler, J. Weixelbaum, G.S. Klees, & W.E. Arendse. American Academy of Forensic Sciences Annual Meeting (Virtual).
- ASCLD 2021 Error Rates and Firearm Examination. Ted Vorburger, S.P. Lund, H.E. Waltke, R.M. Thompson, J.A. Yen, S. Williams, J.M. Butler, J. Weixelbaum, J.A. Soons, X.A. Zheng, J.F. Song, N.F. Zhang, G. Klees, & W.E. Arendse. ASCLD Lightning Talk.
- 2020 Review of Scientific Foundations for Firearms Examination. T.V. Vorburger, J.M. Butler, S.P. Lund, J.A. Yen, R.M. Thompson, S. Williams, H.E. Waltke, G. Klees, & W.E. Arendse. Bundeskriminalamt, Wiesbaden, Germany.
More Information
For more information on this and other NIST Scientific Foundation Reviews, visit our Scientific Foundation Reviews page.
Contacts
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(301) 975-4049