Interesting -- I tracked down the transcript, CBS News
Transcripts, SHOW: CBS MORNING NEWS (6:30 AM ET), April 27, 1994, WASHINGTON DC
POLICE TRACKING GUN CRIMES WITH COMPUTERS FIND A PATTERN TO VIOLENCE AND
KILLING, and it seems the data is a bit different:
JIM STEWART reporting: Last year, 467 people were murdered in Washington, DC,
so police here figured they had about that many killers to round up. But that
was before two new computerized ballistics tests revealed that in dozens of
cases, the same guns were being used over and over again.
Mr. WILLIAM RITCHIE (Washington, DC, Police Inspector): Those systems are
confirming that these cases are related.
STEWART: Telling you that maybe the same gun was used by even the same person
in some cases?
Mr. RITCHIE: Exactly.
STEWART: Altogether, 58 recent violent crimes in Washington have been linked by
the pilot programs to just a handful of gunmen.
Mr. RITCHIE: We have identified 13 homicides, a couple of assaults, even a rape
case where the same weapon was used in these cases.
STEWART: It works this way: cartridges found at the crime scene are collected
and compared using a new FBI devised system, while bullets taken from the
victims themselves are examined by an ATF computer. The computers alert police
every time there's a match. The new technology confirms what police have long
suspected: that somewhere out there there's a hard-core group of killers
responsible for what most people think of as just random violence. Assistant
Treasury Secretary Ron Noble has been pushing the new science....
Maybe there's some other story that I'm missing here, but if this is the story,
then I don't think it's 13 guns used in 460+ murders - it seems to be one gun
used in 13 homicides, and "a handful of gunmen" committing 58 violent crimes.
Eugene
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] [mailto:firearmsregprof-
> [email protected]] On Behalf Of C D Tavares
> Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2012 6:18 PM
> To: Firearmsregprof
> Subject: Re: 40% of firearm sales require no background check?
>
>
> On Dec 29, 2012, at 1:43 AM, C D Tavares wrote:
>
> > On Dec 28, 2012, at 7:09 PM, Joseph E. Olson wrote:
> >
> >> In an imaginary world where every charged criminal every year (1)
> >> used a gun for every violent crime AND (2) used a different gun for
> >> each crime, A COMPLETELY UNREALISTIC SCENARIO
> >
> > The last study I saw on this topic was a bit old, but pretty
> > spectactular; reporting that one of the first comprehensive forensic
> > examinations of bullets from homicides in Washington DC arrived at the
> > somewhat startling conclusion that over hundred homicides (the bulk of
> > the year's tally) had been committed with as few as 13 individual
> > guns. I know I have this study on file somewhere, but just spend over
> > a hour in a pretty exhaustive search and failed to locate it. :-(
>
> Thanks to John Briggs, who provided me with enough keywords to locate the
> original posting and cite:
>
> > From: John Garrett
> > Subject: CBS Evening News
> > Date: April 26, 1994 4:23:22 PM MST
> >
> > Tonight the CBS Evening News ran a story on a study of murders
> > in Washington, DC over the last 12 months. Of 460+ murders in the
> > city, police expected to have 460+ suspects to track. With ATF help,
> > it was determined that the majority of ALL murders was committed with
> > a VERY FEW weapons, something on the order of 13. The Assistant
> > Secretery of the Treasury [I forgot his name, HELP ME OUT HERE] had
> > suspected that such would be the case, and his view was proven right.
> > Instead of a nearly 1:1 correlation [1] that the anti-gunners seem to
> > expect, the ratio, based on the data as I remember it is over 460:13
> > [0.028].
> > Bravo to CBS for finally doing the right thing. We need to
> > take this information to our reps to help defeat pending "assault weapons"
> > legislation. Seems like an awful lot of legal energy spent on a very
> > few criminals. Does Gary Kleck know about this study? Does anybody
> > have his address? Did anybody happen to tape this piece?
> >
>
> >> This was 13 unique, serial numbered pieces of steel -- not 13 "types"
> >> of firearms (like ".38 revolvers") -- right?
> >
> > That's right. I called GOAL and told them they should look up the
> > piece, as well as NRA. I then realized I could go back in time, so I
> > called my buddy in Tucson and asked him to tape the West Coast feed,
> > so I could be precise with the info, and give out names, like the
> > Asst. Secy of Treasury, who had believed that many of the shootings
> > had occured with few weapons. The ATF took brass from the scene and
> > lead from the coroner or wherever they could get it, and did the
> > matches. Guns can be uniquely identified by spent brass, so lead is not
> mandatory, but helps the case.
> > I'll keep the list posted when I get more info.
> > John
>
> --
> Escape the Rat Race for Peace, Quiet, and Miles of Desert Beauty
> Take a Sanity Break at The Bunkhouse at Liberty Haven Ranch
> http://libertyhaven.com
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> To post, send message to
> [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> To
> subscribe,
> unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see
> http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-<http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof>
> bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof<http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof>
>
> Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private.
> Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can
> read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the
> messages to others.
_______________________________________________
To post, send message to [email protected]
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see
http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof
Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private.
Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can
read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the
messages to others.
