The headline to this story is mistitled. It should instead read "Most Americans Ignorant Of The Facts About Bullet 'Fingerprinting'."

It says that most Americans believe that bullet fingerprinting would solve the shooting spree in Tidewater country.

So what? What are we to make of this? What is the point? Scientific subjects, and matters of fact, are not fit topics for opinion polls. The public, in its hysteria and lack of knowlege, may have such an opinion, but there's no basis for it, and it shouldn't be used as a basis for public policy.

I look at bullet fingerprinting the same as I view mandatory fingerprinting of all citizens - an unwarranted method of taking away more of our rights. I still cannot understand parents having their children fingerprinted at "Safety Visits" by the police. Should the child do something in their future life that might attract the attention of the local gendarmes, they may not be thanking you for putting them on file.

It's worse, because it doesn't even work. Fingerprints (at least for now) really are a unique identifier, but bullet prints are much less useful.

Please do not confuse this VERY IMPORTANT ISSUE with facts.

It detracts from the main argument

The whole issue of "finger printing" guns is ridiculous. So we finger print my gun, some jerk breaks in, steals my gun case, committs a roberry and homocide. How does the fingerprint help? Well the Federales' could harrass me ceaselessly about where the gun is. Its just a dumb idea!

Never mind the fact that you'd never get gun owners to agree to bring in all the firearms they currently own to "fingerprint" them... Sure, you could "fingerprint" new guns sold, but there are quite a few (I haven't the time to search the statistics) guns out there that people already own. But that would make it more or less statistically improbable that a gun used in a serial crime would even BE one of the new "fingerprinted" guns.

Until gun manufacturers can find a way to cheaply manufacture non-removable barrels with a bar-code lan/groove pattern unique to each barrel, the term "fingerprint" should either remain in quotes or be discarded altogether. I vote for the term "Weapon probability indicator".

I read on another blog excerpts of a debate that was held Sunday. Unfortunately, the anti-registration guy was out of his weight class.

But I was intrigued that the pro-ballistic-fingerprinting dude kept pointing out that the database would not have the buyer's name. Huh? Who is he kidding besides himself? It would have the serial number - just cross-ref with purchase records and Bingo! But this is how it may be sold, even if what he said taken at face value means you only know the manufacturer (at best), which does not seem much use to me...

Wonderful what a little information can do, isn't it? Remember the "Di-Hydrogen Oxide" petition?

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. That's why we have a representative Republic rather than a simple Democracy. Those dead old rich white guys seemed to know what they were doing when they wrote the ground rules for our government.

Too bad 225 years of meddling have undone so much of what they got right.

Guns are evil. If you allow people to own guns why not allow people to own nuclear bombs? I dont see anything in the flawed second amendment that bars people from owning one type of weapon over another. So I demand that my local Kmart start selling nuclear bombs next to the sniper ammo! Fact is, those people killed by the sniper would still be alive if it wasn't legal for people to own pointless and destructive things like guns and bullets. Don't allow society to be destroyed by stupid "individual" rights as legalized gunownership. Guns not only serve to kill people, but they also bring suffering animals and the ecology as a whole. So the second amendment is one "individual" right that has no place in the modern world.

Weren't those bullets made from a chemical element? We should ban all chemical elements! Everything on the periodic chart must go!

"Don't allow society to be destroyed by stupid "individual" rights ..."

O. K.

So what about "on the spot public strip searches?

What about the loss of your right to critisize(sp?) the govt...or local police tactics?..or what your children are tought in school???

OH - and by the way - love the way you are such the coward you didn't even leave your name !!

Well Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous I have to agree with you...guns are for killing. Killing game or killing of men. But then, so are your basic kitchen knives when you have that intent. The key word here is INTENT. A gun is a TOOL to be used as necessary for the situation you are placed in. Now if you are sick enough to kill another human for no reason whatsoever does it really matter whether that tool was a gun or a hammer? The answer is quite obvious.
And if your arguements turns towards the idea solely of weapons, as a long time practitioner of Hapkido I can tell you that ANY object becomes a weapon when it is in capable hands......even something as simple as a dishcloth or a credit card. (Yes both objects can be used to kill...don't bother argueing this with me because I know how to do it)
And this brings us to the idea of knowledge being used as a weapon. In this same vein of arguementation knowledge should be repressed as well because of the dangers it represents. You see how quickly an oppressive and totalitarian state forms when the idea of "rights" are completely thrown out the window due to possibilities?
And yet I have never taken the life of another human being, even though all these possibilities are present. Why again? Because I lack the desire or intent to do such things. Your hatred of inanimate objects and obvious emotional stress over them smacks of projection of your own fears of having something that grants you the power of life over death in your possession. Most likely because you fear that in some stupid emotional rage you would use it and wind up in jail.
My advice to you: Don't ever buy a gun and get some counseling. Of course this post will never be read by you and my advice will go unheeded, because you are the cowardly sort who goes into a forum spouts off his or her rhetoric and then leaves never to be heard from again. Typical.
(Sorry for the long windedness of my post but it had to be said.)

Your arguments are flawed Charlie Horse. At least items like knives have uses for peaceful things like chopping vegetables or peeling an orange, but guns have no useful purpose other than to kill people and animals. And I agree that credit cards are weapons. Weapons used by greedy corporations to turn us into indentured servants. Believe me, I'm not against the notion of individual rights, I'm only against individual rights which are harmful to society. After all you probably support making drugs illegal and at least they have some medical uses. And why do you want drugs to be illegal? Because drugs aren't good for the health of a society if everyone is addicted to them. And by extension guns aren't good for society because their used to terrorize people and kill animals. See my point? Do you support individuals owning nuclear bombs? There's no provision in the second amendment which says you can't own any particular weapon, so I should be able to own nuclear bombs if I want to. Either the second amendment allows you to own every kind of weapon or it must be thrown out. And I think we all agree owning nuclear bombs is bad so the second amendment must be thrown out.

I agree that the right to own a gun is an inalienable right. However, I support gun registration. We have to register every single car in this country, so why don't we register lethal weapons?
Guns are tools and are no better are worse than their user. Therefore, there should be a mandatory training program to educate gun owners on safety measures and proper gun use. Also, at the very least felons should not be able to own guns.