For example if you use a gun to kill someone how could the bullet possibly be linked to you thousands of guns use the same caliber or a knife even though you would feel terrible looking at the knife wouldn’t it make more sense to just clean it and continue to keep the knife in your home so it make sense that your dna is on it? in movies people always feel the need to get rid of the weapons but i think it would make more sense to keep it unless there’s something i’m missing
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Because if you’re a suspect, they can get a search warrant.
If they find a gun in your possession, they can compare its ballistics to that of the bullet(s) used in the crime and provide x% probability that your gun (the barrel of a gun tends to leave a more or less distinctive pattern on bullets fired from it) was the one used in the crime. Failing that, they can usually tell based on the wounds what caliber was used. That, plus evidence of powder residue or similar on your hands, can count as pretty powerful circumstantial evidence against you.
If you can ensure the weapon is not available to be examined or entered into evidence, it’s one less piece of evidence connecting you to the crime.
That said, if they know you owned such a gun, but you can’t produce it, that’s going to count against you, too. There’s no national registry in the U.S., so it’s not like cops can just check and say, “Yeah, records show OP owns a 1911 with serial number xyz; where is it, OP?” They’d have to have testimony from somebody who knows you own it or something.
Also, you can’t just “clean” a knife. If it was used to attack someone, their blood is likely to be in EVERY little crevice, including right up inside between the hilt and the tang. You could, e.g. soak it in bleach for a while? I guess? That wouldn’t stop them matching it to the wounds on the victim if the knife was in any way unique. If it was just a bog standard kitchen knife, well, it could’ve been anybody’s kitchen knife – literally every house has those. But if it was, say a military-surplus ka-bar/old bayonet, or an unusual shape or something – those are less common, and would affect the shape and character of the wounds inflicted. A good forensic pathologist…
idk. Just maybe don’t commit violent crimes in the first place and it’s a non-issue.
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