Ballistic fingerprinting
![](/Images/godic/202412/23/.38_Special_mushrooming_side_view4237.jpg")
![Bullet from the John F. Kennedy assassination.](/Images/godic/202412/23/CE399side4238.jpg")
![A forensic ballistics experiment](/Images/godic/202412/23/Expertise-ballistique-p10301694238.jpg")
![A firearm identification room. This room includes microscopes, a water tank for firing bullets and, an Automated firearms identification system. This room is used to identify and test firearms picked up as evidence.](/Images/godic/202412/23/GunTesting+Identification4238.JPG")
Ballistic fingerprinting refers to a set of forensic techniques that rely on marks that firearms leave on bullets to match a bullet to the gun it was fired with. It is a subset of forensic ballistics (the application of ballistics to legal questions) and internal ballistics (the study of events between the firing of a gun and the bullet leaving the barrel).