Handbook of Firearms and Ballistics: Examining and Interpreting Forensic Evidence (Developments in Forensic Science) [Hardcover]

Handbook of Firearms and Ballistics
Brian J Heard
(John Wiley and Sons Ltd; Oxford 2008).
ISBN 978-0-470-69460-2

Book review by Sally Ramage

John Wiley and Sons has a series of Handbooks written by forensic experts. The aim is to explain to the layperson, including judges, solicitors and barristers, scientific expert knowledge. Firearms are a contemporary topic and the public needs to understand the state of firearms knowledge today. However, it is a fallacy to think that lawyers did not always grasp such expert knowledge. Case law shows that there have been very eloquent and astute cross-examination in courts where the case was won because of the barrister's good grasp of such knowledge and ably transmitting this to the jury.

Remembering the 1878 case of Charles Peace who was charged with shooting a Blackheath police officer with intent to murder, and who nearly escaped being charged because John and William Hebron were charged with killing police officer Nicholas Cook on 1st August 1878. The Hebron brothers were the original suspects because they had been heard to make threats to kill the police officer Cook for that it matched a boot worn by the older Hebron brothers. Apart from ballistic expert evidence, this 1878 case must have been the first ever shoeprint case, some 130 years before the established police shoeprint database.

Evidence was called to prove that William Hebron had tried to buy gun cartridges at a local ironmonger's. Evidence was called of someone who claimed to have seen William Hebron near the crime scene minutes before the police officer's death. However, there was evidence that the two brothers were working at a nursery at the time when one of them was alleged to be attempting to purchase the cartridges. Many local residents reduced the death sentence to life after successful petition. However, Charles Peace later confessed to the murder of police officer Nicholas Cook. On 29th November 1876, Charles Peace had shot and killed Arthur Dyson, an engineer employed by the North-Eastern Railway. Charles Peace was not arrested and went on to live the life of a music-loving man in a respectable neighbourhood. However, he was arrested one night with housebreaking tools in his possession, after which it was discovered that he was the killer of Dyson in 1876 and he was so charged.

What was unique about Charles Peace was not the murders he committed but the disability he was under when he shot and killed two persons in separate incidents. At an early age, Charles Peace injured his left hand and leg whilst employed in a mill. He coped with his disability by concealing the injured hand under his coat and wearing a false arm in his sleeve, terminating with a hook. Charles Peace killed his victims by strapping his revolver to his wrist.

It is believed that handguns have been used since 1247 and the first recorded use of a hand cannon appeared in 1449 in the form of an illustration of a mounted soldier with a hand cannon resting on a bfork attached to the pommel of the saddle.

The Handbook of Firearms and Ballistics by Brian J Heard has ten chapters, the topics being: firearms; ammunition; ballistics; forensic firearms examination; range of firing estimations and bullet hole examinations; gunshot residue examination; gun-handling tests; restoration of erased numbers; qualifying the expert and cross-examination questions and classification of firearm-related deaths.

One thing that the Charles Peace case in 1878 demonstrates is that violence and the possibility of injury make robbery a serious crime and this is the reason why the criminal justice system responds to such violence by punishing such robberies more harshly. Robbery violence is a by-product of robbery encounters.
A literature review reveals that in modern times, there is a connection between drugs and crime. There is a rising homicide rate in young people. In the classical sub-cultural perspective, lower-class communities generate a distinctive amoral world, which glorifies and legitimates aggressive behaviour especially young men. There are high homicide rates, especially in disadvantaged communities.

Scholars are aware of homicides they term `retaliatory homicides', and `cultural retaliatory homicides' due to problematic policing, neighbourhood culture, interpersonal violence, poverty, unemployment and disadvantage. The power that weaponry confers is another factor in gun crime, which requires expert knowledge to bring about successful convictions. Guns are being used as a symbol of power to achieve goals by inducing compliance with the user's demands. Firearms and ballistics remain a male pasttime.

To achieve successful conviction, prosecutors need to understand the basics of firearms and ballistics and this book by Heard is fit for that purpose. It is good that the barrister, police officer, solicitor and layperson understand some of the ways that conviction is secured.

Evidence is rapidly lost from the surface of hands and within three or four hours, all gun shot residue
(`GSR') particles will have been lost from the hands. Brian Heard explains it well on page 259 of his book:

`The GSR vented from the breech end of a pistol is of low velocity. In addition, as such, particles can only be found on the surfaces immediately surrounding the breech of the weapon, that is, the hands. The likelihood of any GSR particles being found on any of these alternative sites, unless a strong wind is blowing towards the firer, is therefore small'.

Using the `Jill Dando' murder case example, in which Barry George was prosecuted for her murder,
Brian Heard reminds us that the Criminal Cases Review Board had found that Barry George had a right to appeal because his conviction was founded on a single particle residue. The appeal court found that, at his trial, the jury had been misled about the significance of a single microscopic speck of GSR found in the lining of an inside pocket of Barry George's overcoat. Brian Heard explains what particles are to be flagged for further investigation, eliminated from further investigation and which potentially negative samples are. He explains that in the Barry George murder prosecution, there were 200 fields that must be examined on the sample stub.

Chapter 4, on forensic firearms examination, is a fascinating chapter. Since 1900, there has been an established firearm identification process. The Buffalo Medical Journal had then published an article, which revealed that bullets fired through different makes and types of weapon, of the same calibre, were impressed with rifling marks of varying type. Today, experts can reveal whether there was an accidental discharge by faulty lock mechanism, failure of the safety mechanism or inadvertently pulling the trigger, especially when the weapon is violently pulled away from the person holding it.

In sum, this book has been very enlightening. It illustrates that a highly technical subject can be
explained to a non-expert. It is a useful reference book for lawyers.

A really easy read and language simple for novices to the subject or professionals who want to use it for reference