Its All The Gunnie’s Fault!

Never let a tragedy go to waste!

One avenue of investigation is already closed off to forensic officials working the Boston Marathon bombing case due to efforts dating back decades by the National Rifle Association and gun manufacturers….But a crucial piece of evidence called a taggant that could be used to trace the gunpowder used in the bombs to a buyer at a point of sale is not available to investigators.

“If you had a good taggant this would be a good thing for this kind of crime. It could help identify the point of manufacturer, and chain of custody,” Bob Morhard, an explosives consultant and chief executive officer of Zukovich, Morhard & Wade, LLC., in Pennsylvania, who has traced explosives and detonators in use in the United States and Saudi Arabia, told MSNBC.com. “The problem is nobody wants to know what the material is.”

The ATF has not yet released any information on the chemical composition of the Marathon Bombs yet, but something tells me they already know what was used. I fail to see how, even if gunpowder was used taggants would help. True Black powder is an explosive, but unless detonated in a very high oxygen environment leaves a LOT of residue, hence why complex black powder arms like semi or full-auto guns didn’t really arrive until smokeless powder was invented, and when smokeless hit the scene suddenly there were HUNDREDS of new ideas on how to operate a firearm. Black powder is dirty, and that “Dirt” can be easily analyzed.

Smokeless powder is much more efficient, still anybody who does a lot of shooting, especially shotgun shooting you know how much unburned powder is left inside your gun after a day at the range. That’s whole unburnt powder, showing its full composition AND the shape and size of the grains which is also unique to each brand.

But hell, even if the bombers did use smokeless in their bomb, what would the taggants tell them? It would indeed say it was X Brand of smokeless powder, made thin their factory. Or are the antis saying that there needs to be so many taggants that show not only where the powder was made, but where it was shipped to?

This little bit of hand waiving gets pretty ridiculous even before you get into the bit where additives effect load data, and put ammo makers, consumers, and handloaders in danger of cooking up an unsafe load because of formulation changes…and for WHAT?

Oh yeah, because even when there is a terrorist bombing, its the NRA’s fault!