The forensic unknowns of 3D-printed guns

Trace Evidence from 3D-Printed Firearms,” has resulted in a 2017 peer-reviewed paper in Forensic Chemistry, a growing reference library of mass spectra from 3D-printed firearms for use by law enforcement and a book, “Forensic Analysis of Gunshot Residue, 3D-Printed Firearms, and Gunshot Injuries: Current Research and Future Perspectives.”

The research involved Cizdziel and Black being the first to use Direct Analysis in Real Time, or DART, Mass Spectrometry to identify polymers and organic gunshot residue in evidence from 3D-printed guns. The idea is forensic experts could trace the polymer that might show up in chemical evidence from the discharge of a 3D-printed firearm back to the type of plastic used in the gun.

“Our growing database provides a second means of identification or grouping of samples, alleviating the need for subjective interpretation of the mass spectral peaks,” said Cizdziel, a Buffalo native. “We also published fingerprinting protocols on surfaces of 3D-printed guns. 

“Overall, we demonstrated that our methods are particularly useful for investigating crimes involving 3D-printed guns.”

The pair’s research arises from an undergraduate chemistry class Cizdziel taught in 2014, Introduction to Instrumental Analysis. Before earning his bachelor’s degree in forensic chemistry in 2015, Black, who also was an undergraduate researcher in Cizdziel’s laboratory, took the class, where talk soon turned to 3D-printed firearms.

“We discussed how developing new reliable analytical methods for forensic practitioners dealing with trace evidence from 3D-printed guns would make a good doctoral research project,” Cizdziel said. “Apparently this sparked a fire in (Black), and he not only joined my research group as a graduate student but was awarded a research fellowship from the Department of Justice to do that very project.”

Black, from Weatherford, Texas, began the project in 2016, before funding was secured in 2017, and quickly realized he was in unexplored territory.

“There was such a dearth of information out there,” Black said. “There was only one, I think, report of an actual test fire (of a 3D-printed firearm) from a forensic agency.”

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