Firearms
Designed for one-handed use, includes semi-automatic pistols and revolvers, usually rifled barrels
What is handgun?
The national database for ballistics characteristics?
What is NIBIN?
Characterized by soot inside the wound and a stellate pattern.
What is a contact wound?
An explosive that burns rapidly (deflagrates) rather than detonates (e.g., black powder).
What is a low explosive?
A chemical reaction between fuel and oxygen that releases heat and light.
What is combustion?
Long gun, rifled barrel, designed for accuracy at longer distances
What are rifles?
These microscopic markings left on a bullet by a gun barrel can help forensic experts match the bullet to a specific firearm.
What are striations?
Characterized by stippling or tattooing.
What is an intermediate range wound?
A very sensitive explosive that is easily detonated by heat, shock, or friction and is used to initiate other explosives.
What is a primary explosive?
Heat transfer through direct contact between materials.
Conduction
Long gun, typically smooth bore barrel, fires shot pellets or slugs
What is a shotgun?
This small explosive component at the base of a cartridge ignites the gunpowder when struck by the firing pin.
What is a primer?
The triangle rule can help determine the angle of elevation or the angle of __________, if the shooter was firing downwards.
What is the angle of depression?
A flexible cord containing a high explosive (often PETN) used to transfer a detonation wave from one point to another.
What is a detonating cord?
Heat transfer through the movement of gases or liquids.
Convection
The spiral cuts or recessed areas inside a firearm barrel that cause a bullet to spin as it travels down the barrel.
What are grooves?
Patterns formed on clothing or skin from unburned gunpowder particles at close range can help estimate this distance.
What is shooting distance?
This function is used in the final determination of shooting range?
What is the tangent function?
Two most widely used low explosives:
What is black powder and smokeless powder?
Heat transfer through electromagnetic waves.
Radiation
The pattern of lands (raised areas) and grooves cut or formed into the inside of a barrel to stabilize a bullet through spin.
What is rifling?
NIBIN stands for ___________ ?
National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN)
The major and minor axis of a bullet hole can be used to determine the _____________?
What is the angle of impact?
A device used to detect trace amounts of explosive residues.
IMS - Ion Mobility Spectrometer
The combination of heat, fuel, and oxygen.
What is the fire triangle?