Koneg posted:
illmyrin posted:
And your prints are now all over his gun.
Grats on being set up.
Actually it isn't that easy to pull useful prints off a weapon you've been firing.

Only about one in ten discharged weapons will have a usable print left on it.
When you discharge the weapon the vibration ruins every single print you're leaving. It's handling the weapon
after firing it that leaves usable prints. The grips tend to be the best place to find usable prints, and they tend to have b]textured or striated surfaces that prevent you from leaving prints in the first place. Proper weapon handling (ie, finger off the trigger unless you're actually shooting) doesn't leave much on the trigger to work with either.
This bit of useless trivia brought to you by the number 9, and the letter M.

Actually, I must disagree here. I used to teach fingerprinting after I took a rather insane level of interest in the topic. I used to carry a feather in my kit for demo purposes. I would also have people pull prints from textured surfaces. The trick? "Diff Lift" tape. It is like 20x thicker than standard tape and gets into the areas that normal tape will not reach.
I will provide a link that some of you coppers of the OP will really enjoy. If you work crime scenes (or hope to) there is a TON of good info here.
http://www.csigizmos.com/products/latentdevelopment/difflift.html
As an added bonus, I suggest the "I Talk" course from MCTC (sorry, cops only from what I can tell):
http://www.counterdrugtraining.com/default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
FWIW, in a classroom environment I was able to recover a print from a cinder block.
-----signature-----
My folks went on vacation and all I got was this lousy sig.