![]() ![]() About 100 years later, more case reports began to emerge and Shepard among others reported incidents involving wounds caused by blank cartridges and corroborated the warnings issued before, calling the designation “blank” a “misnomer”. Apparently, their ability to severely injure or even kill is highly underrated, even though comments on their potential hazard including warnings against misuse had been published as far back as 1865. ![]() However, although numerous case reports are available, experimental studies focusing on blank guns are limited. These numbers indicate the need for and relevance of ballistic research on blank cartridge guns and ammunition and their hazard potential. Meanwhile, the number of “small gun licenses,” which are required to carry a blank gun in public, is about 670,000, thus representing only 4.5% of the estimated blank guns owned in Germany. This is nearly three times the number of weapons and weapon parts registered at the German national weapon register (NWR, “Nationales Waffenregister”). Examples for this are Turkey, where blank guns are cheap and blank gun–related fatalities are common (e.g., ), and Germany, where in 2020 the police union (GdP, “Gewerkschaft der Polizei”) estimated that about 15 million blank cartridge guns are circulating in the public. They are most prevalent in countries where access to conventional firearms is limited and regulations for gun ownership and gun use are restrictive. Hence, they are freely available in many countries for adults and can be purchased without any need for registration, and with no proper regulation in place. Blank cartridge guns, or blank firing guns, on the other hand, and due to the lack of a projectile, are regarded by many as less hazardous to be used as toys or non-lethal devices for self-defense. ![]() Gun ownership is widespread around the world, and incidents of gunshot related injuries and deaths are well-documented and in some countries so prevalent that gun violence had to be declared as a “public health crisis”. Discussing our findings, we provide recommendations for finding, recovering, and analyzing trace material from blank guns, and we demonstrate the considerable hazard potential of these devices, which is further emphasized by the presentation of a comprehensive overview of the pertinent literature on injuries inflicted by blank guns. Wound cavities were measured and ranged between 1 and 4.5 cm in depth. Visible backspatter was documented on the muzzle and/or inside the barrel in all cases, and in 75% of cases also on the outer surfaces and on the shooter’s hand(s). All skin simulants were penetrated, and backspatter was created in 100% of the shots in amounts sufficient for forensic short tandem repeat (STR) typing that resulted in the correct identification of the respective blood donor. Herein, we investigate the occurrence and analyzability of backspatter generated by shots of different types of blank cartridge guns firing different types of blank ammunition at ballistic gelatin model cubes doped with human blood and radiological contrast agent soaked into a spongious matrix and covered with three different variants of skin simulants. However, although their harming potential is well-documented by numerous reports of accidents, suicides, and homicides, a systematic molecular biological investigation of traces generated by shots from blank cartridges at biological targets has not been done so far. Blank cartridge guns are prevalent especially in countries with laws restricting access to conventional firearms, and it is a common misconception that these weapons are harmless and only used as toys or for intimidation. ![]()
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