Defense lawyer on Pravda weighs in on ballistics
From "papaplume" on Pravda:
I know something about guns. I've been a custom rifle builder [as a hobby] for 40 plus years. I've also built some competition handguns. I also know a little about what the police call "ballistics" [which differ from what firearms engineers call "ballistics"] because I've been a defense lawyer for 30 years and have tried more than a few murder cases. However, I know NOTHING about the Rabin assassination or the type of firearm supposedly used. I can't get the video to run in my computer so that doesn't help.
However, I assume that the assassin used a semi-auto handgun based on the questions raised in your post. A blank cartridge can cycle a semi-auto action is some cases. It depends on the pressure egenerated by the blank cartirdge and how it is made. It also depends on the strength of the recoil spring in the handgun. Most commercially manufactured blanks will not cycle the action unless the recoil spring is weak however.
Muzzle flash is almost meaningless. Any cartridge with a full charge of powder, whether it is a blank with paper or parafin wadding in place of the bullet or whether it has a real bullet, will create a muzzle flash that is huge. Muzzle flash is nothing but hot gases from the burning powder breaking free of the barrel. These hot expanding gases are the same thing that creates the noise in any gun. Therefore, if it makes noise, there will be a large muzzle flash.
Technically, external ballistics is the study of the path of a bullet in flight. Internal ballistics deals with the pressures -- in some handguns as much as 45,000 pouinds per square inch and in rifles as high as 65,000 psi, that the burning powder generates in the chamber and as it progresses through the barrel. Police, however, refer to "ballistics" as the marks made on both the bullet as it passes through the barrel -- basically a fingerprint from machining imperfections in the barrel -- and the marks on the fired cases made by machining imperfections in the chamber and on the bolt face of the gun. These marks can be very unreliable or they can be quite reliable. Police generally use a very low standard -- if there are 15 or more identical marks between the bullet taken from a victim and a test bullet, they consider it a match. There may be as many as 150 discernable marks on the bullet or case and they consider it a match if there are fewer than 2 dozen similarities.
Many years ago, when I was working as a gunsmith, we conducted some tests with different barrels that had the rifling cut with the same broach. Even though the barrels were on different guns, we were able to reproduce more than 2 dozen similar machining marks on different bullets. I, personally, do not trust these ballistic tests anymore than I trust fingerprint evidence which is a whole 'nother problem.
I know something about guns. I've been a custom rifle builder [as a hobby] for 40 plus years. I've also built some competition handguns. I also know a little about what the police call "ballistics" [which differ from what firearms engineers call "ballistics"] because I've been a defense lawyer for 30 years and have tried more than a few murder cases. However, I know NOTHING about the Rabin assassination or the type of firearm supposedly used. I can't get the video to run in my computer so that doesn't help.
However, I assume that the assassin used a semi-auto handgun based on the questions raised in your post. A blank cartridge can cycle a semi-auto action is some cases. It depends on the pressure egenerated by the blank cartirdge and how it is made. It also depends on the strength of the recoil spring in the handgun. Most commercially manufactured blanks will not cycle the action unless the recoil spring is weak however.
Muzzle flash is almost meaningless. Any cartridge with a full charge of powder, whether it is a blank with paper or parafin wadding in place of the bullet or whether it has a real bullet, will create a muzzle flash that is huge. Muzzle flash is nothing but hot gases from the burning powder breaking free of the barrel. These hot expanding gases are the same thing that creates the noise in any gun. Therefore, if it makes noise, there will be a large muzzle flash.
Technically, external ballistics is the study of the path of a bullet in flight. Internal ballistics deals with the pressures -- in some handguns as much as 45,000 pouinds per square inch and in rifles as high as 65,000 psi, that the burning powder generates in the chamber and as it progresses through the barrel. Police, however, refer to "ballistics" as the marks made on both the bullet as it passes through the barrel -- basically a fingerprint from machining imperfections in the barrel -- and the marks on the fired cases made by machining imperfections in the chamber and on the bolt face of the gun. These marks can be very unreliable or they can be quite reliable. Police generally use a very low standard -- if there are 15 or more identical marks between the bullet taken from a victim and a test bullet, they consider it a match. There may be as many as 150 discernable marks on the bullet or case and they consider it a match if there are fewer than 2 dozen similarities.
Many years ago, when I was working as a gunsmith, we conducted some tests with different barrels that had the rifling cut with the same broach. Even though the barrels were on different guns, we were able to reproduce more than 2 dozen similar machining marks on different bullets. I, personally, do not trust these ballistic tests anymore than I trust fingerprint evidence which is a whole 'nother problem.
posted by David Ben-Ariel at 3:23 PM
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