MARCH 19--NanoVia LP (Londonderry, NH; www.nanovia.com)
has agreed to assist California in writing its state ballistic-identification legislation. NanoVia's patented ballistic-tagging technology, NanoTag, is slated to be a key component.
A number of states' Departments of Justice have expressed an immediate interest in evaluating the technology, as have several federal agencies. The California Department of Justice has entered into an evaluation program with NanoVia to optimize and test various code configurations and placement of embossing surfaces within various firearms for forensic value, repeatability, and to establish guidelines for implementation.
Within a properly outfitted firearm, NanoVia's micro-embossing technology imparts a unique, indelible, and microscopic code on the bullet and/or shell casing. The technology would be integrated as an alternative to the ballistic "fingerprinting" method currently under debate. The NanoTag Ballistic ID Tag does not require national registration of new firearms or a crossjurisdictional database of ballistic fingerprint images of those new firearms. Instead, it replaces the ambiguous "scratch and ding" imaging and analysis with a proof-positive ID technology.
This type of identifier would immediately lead investigators to a specific gun without the manpower and expense associated with trying to match "scratches & dings" that change with time and/or differing ammunition. Because it uses imaging equipment already commonly found at local, state, and federal forensics laboratories, the cost of implementing the Ballistic ID Tag technology is negligible compared to the manpower and equipment costs required for "ballistic fingerprinting."
