Lead-free gun crime

Environmental and health concerns surrounding the use of lead mean that now most gun ammunition is made lead free. Because of this development, police forensic scientists cannot rely solely on standard tests for lead in gun crime scene investigations. Now, US chemists Jorn Chi Chung Yu, Garrett Lee Burleson, and colleagues in the department of forensic science at Sam Houston State University in Texas have devised an approach to sampling and analysing gunshot residues that circumvents the problem of a lack of lead and could complement conventional forensic techniques.