Fall 2005 SWGGUN Meeting Summary
SWGGUN recently
met at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA September
26-30. Thirteen of the Board Members were
present at the meeting; seven additional members
were not in attendance. SWGGUN is currently
looking for a new ASCLD Representative with the
retirement of James Carr of the Metro-Dade
Police Crime Laboratory, Miami, Florida.
Two guest speakers presented useful information
at this meeting. The International Program
Manager for ASCLD/LAB presented information
regarding ISO and the standards which may
influence some of the work in the Firearm and
Toolmark discipline. An informative presentation
from a representative of SWGFAST on Daubert
challenges within the Latent Print field was
received as well.
Final approval was granted for the adoption of
the “Forensic Examination Guidelines for
Silencers…” This document is available under the
“Guidelines” tab on the website. The research
undertaken during this project is being
organized and the data integrated into a usable
format for publication.
The Minimum Qualifications for Firearm and
Toolmark Examiners committee made progress in
the form of draft documents “Minimum
Qualifications for Firearm and Toolmark Examiner
Trainees” and “Minimum Qualifications for
Experienced Firearm and Toolmark Examiners”. The
Board will be reviewing these drafts, commenting
and looking for approval of the documents. These
documents should be available under the
“Guidelines” tab of the website within the next
few months.
The Trigger Pull committee finished compiling
all of the data collected from the AFTE
Conference in Indianapolis and evaluated all the
data for the comparison of trigger pull testing
equipment. (i.e. arsenal weights, spring gauges,
digital force gauges, etc.) A draft has been
generated for review by the Board and will be
evaluated at the spring 2006 meeting. The
research undertaken during this project is being
organized and the data integrated into a usable
format for publication.
An ISO Transition committee was formed and is
beginning to collect information regarding ISO
requirements that exceed or differ from ASCLD/LAB
requirements. This committee is seeking any
input from all firearm and toolmark examiners
within the discipline that may be considering
ISO.
Ongoing projects that are being addressed by
SWGGUN are:
- Trigger
Pull Evaluation of methods and equipment
used.
- Minimum
Qualifications for Firearm and Toolmark
Trainees.
- ISO
Transition-defining the standards.
- Daubert
Challenges in the field of Firearm and
Toolmark Identification.
These
committees are working to develop a product that
can be posted on the SWGGUN website for review
and comments from the forensic community. SWGGUN
continues to operate its own website at
www.swggun.org
and solicits valuable input from the discipline
through a number of different mechanisms during
the development stages of the guidelines in
which we produce. These guidelines/documents are
then posted on the website for your review and
we encourage peer review of these materials.
Feel free to contact a Board Member with your
comments/concerns or visit us at the “Feedback
Forum” tab above.
Thank you for allowing us to serve you. Board
member information can be found under the
“Members” tab. We look forward to hearing from
you and encourage your continued participation
in these ongoing projects that ultimately affect
our work product.
Thomas L.G. Price –Chair, SWGGUN
