Congress dropped the taggant legislation years ago when ATF told them that it would do them no good as a tracer, since almost all explosives used to commit crimes are stolen. You will remember that after the Oklahoma City Bombing where fertilizer was used, Congress again considered tagging agents, but the bill never made it out of a subcommitte. The ATF spoke to the Senators in a closed session, and filled them in on the true facts of life. One of the East Coast State has dropped its law requiring factories to supply the state with a sample bullet from each gun shipped to the state. ( New Jersey or Maryland) During the trial period, NO cases were solved based on being able to match such a bullet to a bullet found at a crime scene( ie, in someone's body.) The reason is, as we tried to tell them, that the markings in a barre( microscopic) which are used by crime labs to identify a particular gun as the one used to fire a given bullet, CHANGE as they are shot, with new scratches appearing in the surface of the barrel from debris, and grit found in the powder, and in the barrel from pocket or holster lint, and just dust from the air. Even matching a gun to a bullet is not going to convict someone of a crime unless you have other evidence that puts the gun in the accused hands at the time of the crime. Have we all forgotten, " Who shot J.R. Ewing, on "Dallas "? It wasn't his wife, Sue Ellen, although it was her gun, and she was found standing over his body holding the smoking gun! ( She was arrested, jailed, and indicted for Att. Murder, but was acquitted when J.R. woke up from him coma and admitted that his gf had shot him. We don't have many experienced trial lawyers working in Congress, these days. It shows.
