Citation

Miyauchi H, Kumihashi M, Shibayama T. J. Forensic Sci. 1998; 43(1): 90-96.

Affiliation

Research Institute of Scientific Criminal Investigation, Kagawa Police Headquarters, Japan.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9456530

Abstract

The smokeless powders in 22 kinds of ammunitions seized from one of the Japanese gang groups were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (SEM/EDX). Copper(Cu), sulfur(S), potassium(K), silicon(Si), aluminum(Al), calcium(Ca), iron(Fe), chlorine(Cl), and barium(Ba) were detected. Cu was found in all samples. One sample contained a high amount of Ba. One part of the burnt smokeless powder was found to contain Cu, K, Ca, Fe and S, the other part contained Cu, Fe, and zinc(Zn). It has been reported that the elements in gunshot residues originate from a bullet and/or a primer. However, this demonstrates that smokeless powder could be the source of some of the elements detected.

Language: en