The Firearm and Toolmark Section examines submitted firearms, tools/toolmarks, fired evidence, clothing, silencing devices, and fractured items for the following:
- Function testing of firearms – including malfunction check, trigger pull, alterations and/or conversions to full-automatic fire
- Determine manufacturer(s) of firearms that could have fired ammunition components
- Examine clothing and other items for gunshot residue or shot pellet patterns to ascertain a muzzle to target distance determination
- Determine manufacturer(s) of fired ammunition components
- Examination of silencers and devices to reduce the report of a firearm
- Ejection pattern study of discharged cartridges and/or discharged shot shells
- Serial number restorations
- Entry of evidence and test fired discharged cartridges and discharged shot shells into the Integrated Ballistic Identification System (IBIS)
- Measurement of long gun length and overall length
- Microscopic comparison of fired evidence components to submitted firearms
- Microscopic comparison of questioned toolmarks to submitted tool standards
- Microscopic comparison of recovered fractured items to determine if the fractured items at one time formed a single object