Gun Makers to Give Bullet ‘Fingerprint’

Beginning Sunday, with every new handgun sold in Maryland, the manufacturer will have to give state police a spent shell casing carrying the weapon’s ballistic fingerprint. Under the law--the first of its kind in the nation--the unique markings on the casing will then be entered into a database. The law will allow detectives who find a bullet casing at a crime scene to use a computer to instantly identify the gun it came from. But questions remain about the law’s effectiveness. Critics say that there are no criminal penalties for noncompliance.