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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Every weapon has a unique signature, like a fingerprint or a shoe print. The imperfections and wear and tear mean that when examined under a microscope, the marks left by the weapon can be used to identify if that weapon was the same one used in the murder.
For a gun, bullet forensic experts will examine the shell casings for lands and grooves – markings on the casing made by the rifling of the gun. Even though there may be thousands like it, the wear on the rifling of a gun is unique. Forensic experts will discharge the suspect firearm, match the casing grooves with the evidence, and establish whether the murder bullet was fired from the same gun. Similar with knives: the blades will inevitably have chips and cracks that will appear in forensic testing.
Having the murder weapon in your possession is pretty much giving yourself a big red target for investigators. If the victim was killed by a 9mm gun, and police find that you have a 9mm gun, that’s going to be taken and tested, and now you have to explain how you happen to have the exact gun used in the murder. In contrast, getting rid of the weapon introduces two hurdles. Firstly, the police have to find the murder weapon. Secondly, the police have to establish the link between the suspect and the murder weapon. It can be much more difficult to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt if the murder weapon is not present.
Hence, murderers will more often than not want to dispose of the murder weapon to create a break in the evidence so that it doesn’t link back to them.
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