Firearms

Subspecialties: Classification, Ballistics, Comparison microscopy

Firearms specialists assist in the investigation of firearms incidents and firearm related enquiries. They examine firearms and their components, potential firearms, ammunition and fired ammunition components.

This enables them to identify and classify them according to current legislation, and to assess their capability and condition.

They also examine gunshot wounds and damaged objects to comment on the ranges from which shots were fired, and their trajectories. This is called ballistics.

An important feature of the work is the establishing of links between firearms and incidents, or between different incidents. A firearms specialist does this by using a microscope to compare fired ammunition components, found at scenes, with components obtained by the test firing of suspect firearms.

When necessary the specialist attends post mortem examinations or scenes of incidents to establish information such as the number of shots fired, their direction and the likely sequence of events.


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