Gun Investigators Cautiously Optimistic About New Fingerprint Technology
Years ago, most detectives stopped trying to retrieve fingerprints from shell casings. A new method, touted as 25 times better, could change that.
Ann Givens
After a Mass Shooting, Who Cares for the Coroners?
Las Vegas's death investigators witnessed the atrocities of the Route 91 shooting, then had to grapple with the difficult task of healing themselves.
The Ex-FBI Agent Updating ‘See Something, Say Something’ for the Mass Shooting Era
Katherine Schweit thinks people don’t realize how much power they have to prevent mass shootings.
The Complicated Collision of Criminal Justice Reform and Gun Rights
Ideological lines get tangled when reforming the system means people once barred from owning firearms can get them back.
Denver Builds Out Pioneering Gun Crime Investigation Unit
The city that set the bar for sharing ballistic intel is pushing its successful approach regionwide.
A New Method of DNA Testing Could Solve More Shootings
Criminologists thought it was impossible to get DNA off of shell casings, but a technique pioneered in the Netherlands is having notable results.
Q&A: Stories of Strength Amid Chicago’s Relentless Shootings
We talked to author Alex Kotlowitz about what’s changed, and what hasn’t, in his city over the past 30 years.
ATF’s Push to Solve More Gun Crimes Is Stymied by Local Police, Report Finds
A push by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to improve…
Police Departments Fail to Regularly Trace Crime Guns
We set out to determine how domestic killers in South Carolina got their guns. Instead, we found evidence of a widespread breakdown of critical crime-fighting intel.
New Federal Grants Seek to Boost Prosecutions of Gun Ballistics Cases
A national database of shell casings has been deployed unevenly. So the DOJ is encouraging lawyers who want to use it to link and crack cases.
A Powerful Database Helps Solve Gun Crimes. Only Two States Require Police to Use It.
New Jersey and Delaware have laws mandating that investigators use an innovative ballistics system called NIBIN. The other 48 states don’t — and their reticence makes it harder to ID shooters everywhere.
Watch How Crime Labs Use a Tool Called NIBIN to Crack Gun Cases
If you’re curious about potential solutions for the nation’s gun violence crisis, watch this crime-fighting tool in action.