2022
Erich D. Smith, Michael Smith
Atlanta, GA
On January 3, 2022, four statisticians issued a statement entitled, “Firearms and Toolmark Error Rates” [“Statement”]. The Statement asserts six “fundamental problems” with error rate studies in the forensic firearm/toolmark identification discipline. They include study design, participant sampling, material sampling, missing data and non-response bias, types of marks and study difficulty, and inconclusive results. The Statement claims that these alleged problems render firearm/toolmark error rate studies unreliable. Based on this position, the authors conclude that they “[c]annot support the use of this evidence [firearms examination evidence and expert testimony] in criminal proceedings.”
Due to disagreement with certain of the assertions in the Statement, the FBI Laboratory formulated an official response to it. This presentation outlines some of the points covered within the FBI Laboratory’s response.