Tag: Personal Information

Gun Control Not Associated With Reducing Suicides

Throwing all manner of mud at the wall to see what might stick, Michael Bloomberg’s number-crunchers and whoever produces “reports” for the Brady Campaign nowadays have decided, as gun control supporters do, to try promoting gun control as the solution to suicide.

From their perspective, it makes sense to give it a try, since firearm murder and firearm accident death rates are at historic lows, the American people increasingly say that firearms help protect people from crime, and each of the anti-gunners’ attempts to promote gun control in knee-jerk reaction to high-profile crimes has motivated Americans to buy more guns.

A new study by researchers at Bloomberg’s Center for Gun Policy at Johns Hopkins University contends that if you juggle the numbers a certain way, suicide rates might hinge on whether a state requires a permit to purchase a handgun, while the Brady Campaign tries to link suicide rates to gun availability in general.

Dealing with the subject of suicide requires the anti-gunners to get creative, however. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data, which cover years 1981 through 2013—incidentally, a period in which Americans acquired an additional 195 million firearms—the firearm suicide rate (the number of suicides per 100,000 population) decreased five percent, while the non-firearm suicide rate increased 27 percent.

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Several recent studies have called for improved imaging technology and matching algorithms to support firearm identification. The author investigated and developed a novel, accurate, and low-cost system for structural 3D imaging and comparison of cartridge cases.

He was able to demonstrate the system’s potential for increasing the quality and reducing the cost of forensic analyses. The project, named Top-Match, combines the recently developed GelSight high-resolution surface topography imaging system with state-of-the-art algorithms for matching structural features.

Compared to competing technologies, the author’s GelSight-based system is fast, inexpensive, and not sensitive to the optical properties of the material being measured. The project aimed to extend the system to measure and compare striated toolmarks (e.g., aperture shear), to integrate these marks into the scoring function, and to investigate matching algorithms for comparing 3D surface topographies captured using different imaging modalities (e.g., GelSight vs. confocal microscopy).

The author developed a robust algorithm for extracting the linear profile of aperture shears. This method is able to extract profiles from curved, flat, or arced shears. Manual examination of the extracted profiles shows informative profiles can be extracted for approximately 88 percent of Glock casings.

These linear profiles can then be matched as part of a matching algorithm, which demonstrates a significant improvement in Glock matching ability when the shears are considered.

The author created an open file format (X3P) for the free exchange of 3D surface topography data. This format allowed collaboration with his colleagues at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). They demonstrated that cross-modality matching is possible and that, in many cases, it works extremely well.

To achieve these results, the confocal scans required simple preprocessing (mainly interpolation of drop-outs and denoising with a low-pass filter). The system is able to accurately identify known matches when scans were acquired with GelSight or Confocal scanning systems. The algorithm was also able to identify known matches where one scan is a GelSight scan and the other is a Confocal scan.

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TALLAHASSEE – Florida, which already has the most concealed-weapon licenses in the nation, is now fast-tracking the process for active-duty military members and honorably discharged veterans.

Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam announced Monday that active and retired service members will immediately begin to get top priority when applying for the licenses.

The expedited process is part of the state’s reaction to a shooting rampage in Tennessee in which four Marines and a sailor were killed on July 16.

“The men and women who serve and have served our country deserve all of the support we can provide,” Putnam said in a prepared statement.

The announcement expands upon an executive order issued July 18 by Gov. Rick Scott. The executive order included a requirement that preference be given to members of the Florida National Guard when applying for concealed-weapon licenses.

The order also directed Adjutant Gen. Michael Calhoun to temporarily move National Guard members from six “storefront” recruitment centers to armories and to work with local law-enforcement agencies to arrange regular security checks of armories.

Putnam expanded the license fast-tracking to include all military members.

Active members of the military are advised to include copies of their Common Access Cards or other forms of official military identification with their applications. Veterans have to file copies of their DD 214 long forms with their applications to get fast-tracked.

The state agency hasn’t estimated how many members of the military and veterans will take advantage of the expedited process, said Putnam spokeswoman Jennifer Meale.

Currently, there are more than 1.41 million concealed-weapon licenses issued in Florida, according to the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which administers the program.

The state went over the 1 million mark in December 2012, becoming the first state in the nation to surpass that figure.

Pennsylvania, which does not post its concealed-weapon numbers, has reportedly joined Florida in surpassing the 1 million mark.

According to a 2014 study from the Pennsylvania-based Crime Prevention Research Center, Texas has issued the third most concealed-carry permits among the states.

There were 825,957 concealed-carry permits in Texas as of Dec. 31, 2014, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Meanwhile, Florida lawmakers in 2014 made it more convenient to apply for a concealed-carry licenses by allowing county tax collectors’ offices to accept applications.

So far, 13 offices — Brevard, Highlands, Hillsborough, Indian River, Lee, Marion, Martin, Nassau, Okaloosa, Pasco, Pinellas, St. Johns and Walton — accept the applications.

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Gun Control Group Would Endanger Military

As if misguided anti-gun policies that leave our fighting men and women defenseless stateside weren’t enough, some gun control advocates are intent on reviving a Clinton-era gun control tactic that would pose a danger to our military in the field.

In an opinion piece for the Saturday edition of the New York Times, several representatives of the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation, described as a group “aimed at building power for social change,” encouraged President Obama to inject gun control politics into federal firearms acquisition procedure.

More specifically, Metro-IAF wants the president to exercise the federal government’s purchasing power to reward firearms manufacturers that acquiesce to “voluntary” gun control measures in its dealings with civilian gun owners, and punish those that refuse to curb the rights of American gun owners.

According to the group, “For the government to keep buying guns from these companies — purchases meant to ensure public safety — without making demands for change is to squander its leverage.”

The first organization Metro-IAF would like to foist their gun control experiment on is the U.S. Army.

The group states, “The Pentagon is in the process of selecting the provider of handguns for the United States Army. It should require all bidders to provide detailed information about their gun safety technologies and distribution practices in the civilian market. No response, no contract.”

Another target specifically mentioned by Metro-IAF is the FBI. However, it appears the group would like to extend this strategy to all of federal law enforcement.

Under the group’s plan, in order to compete for federal contracts, manufacturers would be required to fund unprofitable “smart gun” technology, only sell through dealers that will not complete a sale following a delayed NICS check that extends past the three-day safety-valve provision (a potential gun ban for the significant number of persons wrongfully delayed each year), and “distribute their guns exclusively through dealers that sell guns responsibly.”

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Sextortion is a serious crime that occurs when someone threatens to distribute your private and sensitive material if you don’t provide them images of a sexual nature, sexual favors, or money.

The FBI currently has open sextortion investigations across the country that involve both subjects and victims from around the world. To discuss the crime and highlight a recent case, the FBI is hosting a live Twitter chat Tuesday, July 21, at 2 p.m. EDT. Assistant Director Joseph Campbell of the Bureau’s Criminal Investigative Division will field questions on the FBI’s Twitter account at twitter.com/FBI.


You can follow the conversation and submit questions using the hashtag #AskFBI.

Chats are open to the public, and everyone is encouraged to participate.

- FBI on Twitter
- Submit questions and follow chat
- More information on sextortion

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It’s now legal for visitors to enter the Kansas Capitol carrying a concealed firearm without a permit.

Concealed carry became legal in the Capitol last year. A person could take a gun in if he or she presented a permit to the Kansas Highway Patrol officers who provide security at the entrance.

This year, the Legislature passed a bill lifting the requirement that a person get a permit to carry a concealed firearm.

That law, which went into effect July 1, means a person does not need to go through a background check or training in order to carry a concealed gun on the sidewalk or other public spaces, including the Capitol.

“We’re still screening everybody like we did when we were letting people with concealed carry licenses in,” said Officer Patrick Saleh with the Highway Patrol’s Capitol Police. “We still need to check bags and packages for explosives. The only thing that’s changed is we’re not asking them for their concealed carry ID card. But otherwise they’re still coming through the screening center and we’re letting them right in as though they had a permit for it.”

Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, R-Hutchinson, one of the main proponents of the new law, said in an e-mail that the Capitol “should be treated just like any other public building in our state” and that “Kansans should be able to exercise their rights under the Second Amendment in this building.”

Gun control advocates say that allowing a person to carry a gun into the Capitol without any minimum requirements poses risks. The Capitol, which houses the Legislature and the governor’s office, is a popular destination for families and for school field trips.

“To allow people to carry loaded, hidden guns without first going through a background check or require any sort of training is a terrible and bad idea for public safety in Kansas,” said Brian Malte, senior national policy director with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Rep. Travis Couture-Lovelady, R-Palco, who carried the legislation on the House floor, said it would be hypocritical for lawmakers to prevent people from bringing guns into the Capitol, He noted that lawmakers are able enter the building without going through metal detectors or being searched by security.

“I hate the idea of us treating ourselves differently,” he said.

He acknowledged that the Capitol could be a target for a gunman, but said allowing people to carry guns for self defense made the building safer.

“There’s a lot of legislators that are carrying, I’m sure. And there’s a lot of lobbyists that carry every day … and a lot of them are pretty good dang shots, so I feel pretty good about that,” Couture-Lovelady said. “And as far as those that want to do harm to us in the Capitol, if they really want to cause problems, if they really want to have a mass shooting in the Capitol the little metal detectors aren’t going to stop them. All they have to do is get someone in the building and then go to a side door and let people in with the big guns. So I just think it’s another instance of a false sense of security.”

Not all lawmakers are supportive of allowing guns into the Capitol without restrictions.

Rep. Stephanie Clayton, R-Overland Park, said that she doesn’t fear for her own safety but she worries that this makes the building more dangerous for kids visiting.

“I do have concerns for children who are visiting on field trips. I feel like it’s a less safe for the public,” she said. “There’s a different view where as a lawmaker I accept that risk where as a member of the public, do they really need to accept that?”

Clayton said her chief concern was not that there would be an active shooter, but that allowing guns into the building without requiring training increases the risk of a gun going off by accident.

“That’s what’s going to hurt us, is a misfire through a lack of training,” she said.

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Three Chicago police officers filed a federal lawsuit against the department Thursday, challenging its new policy that requires uniformed officers to cover their tattoos.

The officers, all of whom served in the military and have tattoos on their arms, argue in the suit that the policy violates their First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and expression. The city of Chicago is named as the sole defendant.

According to the Police Department’s new policy, which went into effect June 12, tattoos and body brandings cannot be visible on officers “while on duty or representing the department, whether in uniform, conservative business attire, or casual dress.”

The hands, face, neck and other areas not covered by clothing must be covered with “matching skin tone adhesive bandage or tattoo cover-up tape,” according to the policy. Uniformed officers also are barred from wearing baseball caps, and knit caps in the winter, under the new policy.

One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Officer Daniel Medici, a nine-year veteran of the department, bears a tattoo that honors his service in the Marine Corps. An Iraq War veteran, he has a “wings and halos” tattoo in remembrance of his fallen comrades, according to the suit.

The two other plaintiffs, Officers John Kukielka and Dennis Leet, each have a religious tattoo of St. Michael, the patron and protector of police, mariners, paratroopers and sickness, the suit says. Medici also bears a religious tattoo. Leet and Kukielka both served in the Air Force and were hired by the Police Department in 1999 and 2009, respectively.

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Fingerprints have been used by law enforcement and forensics experts to successfully identify people for more than 100 years. Though fingerprints are assumed to be infallible personal identifiers, there has been little scientific research to prove this claim to be true. As such, there have been repeated challenges to the admissibility of fingerprint evidence in courts of law.

“We wanted to answer the question that has plagued law enforcement and forensic science for decades: Is fingerprint pattern persistent over time?” said Anil Jain, University Distinguished Professor, computer science and engineering, at Michigan State University. “We have now determined, with multilevel statistical modeling, that fingerprint recognition accuracy remains stable over time.”

Jain, along with his former Ph.D. student Soweon Yoon, who is now with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, used fingerprint records of 15,597 subjects apprehended multiple times by the Michigan State Police over a time span varying from five to 12 years.

The results show that fingerprint recognition accuracy doesn’t change even as the time between two fingerprints being compared increases.

The paper by Yoon and Jain, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the largest and most thorough study of the persistence of Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems, or AFIS, accuracy.

Experts agree that Jain’s research addresses one of the most fundamental issues in fingerprint identification and is of great importance to law enforcement and forensic science:

“This study is one of the fundamental pieces of research on a topic that has always been taken for granted. The permanence of fingerprints has not been systematically studied since the seminal work of Herschel was presented in Galton’s book: Finger Prints (1892, Macmillian & Co.).

Although operational practice has shown that the papillary patterns on our hands and feet are extremely stable and subject to limited changes (apart from scars), the study presented in PNAS provides empirical and statistical evidence.” Professor Christophe Champod, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland.

“This study is a monumental achievement and one that will benefit forensic science teams worldwide.” Capt. Greg Michaud, director of the Forensic Science Division, Michigan State Police.

“Dr. Jain’s analytic quantification on fingerprint persistence of the results significantly support early studies on fingerprint persistence and yet further support legal requirements for peer review and publication.” Jim Loudermilk, senior level technologist at the FBI Science and Technology Branch.

Jain’s research was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation Center for Identification Technology Research.

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TSA WANTS TO TWEET WITH TRAVELERS

The Transportation Security Administration is looking to airlines for customer service tips.

The Department of Homeland Security agency plans to set up a new Twitter account, @AskTSA, to respond directly to customer complaints and questions, according to a new solicitation.

Though its public affairs office currently uses social media to “communicate messages/information to the general public,” other brands, “including airlines, use social media in a different way: communicating directly with their customers, answering questions and resolving issues in real-time,” the solicitation said.

American Airlines’ Twitter handle, @AmericanAir, for instance, has 1.13 million followers and is used to respond publicly, and directly, to individual customers. In one case, on Thursday afternoon, @AmericanAir tweeted directly at a customer to “please advise a crewmember” when she took to Twitter to complain about a potentially faulty cooling system.

The solicitation could be part of TSA’s broader efforts to connect with customers digitally. The agency already has an Instagram account with roughly 303,000 followers, where it often posts photos of confiscated items, such as a set of throwing star weapons discovered last week at Alexandria International Airport in Louisiana. (TSA posted the image with the hashtag #TSAGoodCatch.) The agency’s main Twitter account, @TSA, created in 2011, has more than 46,000 followers.

The notice comes a few days after travel website Travelmath released an analysis of Twitter users’ sentiments toward TSA, using an algorithm to rank Twitter mentions in the United States as positive, negative or neutral. Among states that had enough TSA mentions to process, “nearly three times as many had a negative sentiment than a positive one,” that report said. (Words such as “confiscate,” “grope” and “rude” were among words frequently mentioned in those tweets, according to Travelmath.)

Though TSA’s solicitation is “for market research only,” the agency is searching for small businesses who can provide a Web-based customer engagement platform that up to 10 TSA staffers can log onto concurrently, according to the posting on FedBizOpps.

The Web platform must have many functions, including a “robust content repository to store pre-approved content, canned responses and approved images,” and an “interactive dashboard to engage in real time, one-to one conversations without ticket assignment,” according to the solicitation.

The goal, according to a TSA statement provided to Nextgov, is to “improve the traveler’s experience through one-to-one conversations on Twitter to actively assist customers before, during and after their travel.”

But it’s unclear what the timeline is for @AskTSA, and if TSA even owns the handle — TSA officials could not be reached for interview. Though the handle exists, it has no avatar, bio or tweets, and has so far racked up only two followers.

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4 TOP CHALLENGES FOR FEDERAL CIOS

In today’s tight budgetary climate, chief information officers are being called on to find innovative ways to use technology to perform operations faster and more effectively. Grant Thornton has surveyed federal CIOs and chief information security officers for 25 years, and recently released with the Professional Services Council the 25th survey highlighting some key challenges facing this community.

1. Cybersecurity remains the top priority.

This is no surprise, unless you’ve been hiding under a rock. Ninety percent of CIOs cited an increase in cyberattacks. More than a quarter of the CIOs experienced threat increases of more than 50 percent. CIOs were also asked the extent to which cyber spending increased. Unfortunately, while 90 percent confirmed that cyber spending increased, the majority of the respondents said spending increased between 0 and 10 percent. It is clear, CIOs need additional resources to fight an ever-growing, well-resourced and persistent cyberthreat. Competing for professionals with these highly sought-after skills is becoming increasingly difficult, especially in the federal sector where compensation is limited.

2. CIOs remain focused on cloud but aren’t there yet.

Only 8 percent of CIOs reported that initial cloud efforts are where they want to be. Most have done “the easy stuff,” like migrating email and websites. What’s next? CIOs see cloud-based development platforms as an innovation that can improve efficiency and reduce costs if done right. One CIO said, “We have used cloud to reduce our life cycle costs by 90 percent and bring applications to market in 70 percent less time.” CIOs acknowledged that moving is not easy, citing a number of lessons learned: treating migration as a transformation effort; not underestimating the integration challenges or need for planning; developing clear SOWs with models to pay based on consumption; and creating risk-based security models based on the data in the cloud.

3. Data analytics presents an opportunity for improvement.

Over 80 percent of respondents noted their organizations’ ability to use data to make business decisions were average or below average. Agencies identified the need for help in managing the proliferation of data and developing master data management plans. CIOs commented that data silos litter the enterprise and are not easily accessible. CIOs also stated they have limited people with the expertise to effectively leverage data management solutions and tools.

4. Undergoing Culture Change

In the wake of failed launches of large-scale IT programs, federal IT managers are quickly moving to embrace modular development where failures, if they happen, can be more easily managed. This is causing agencies to go through a culture change focused on building and delivering quickly, allowing for experimentation and failure, and ultimately faster time to stakeholder satisfaction. While agile shows much promise, only one-third of CIOs are using agile as the default, while another third are “in the early stages.” CIOs noted as critical success factors the importance of training; effective metrics; automated platforms; and the ability to commit to working in integrated teams with clearly defined roles.

Between the rapid pace of technological change, ever-increasing cyberthreat and continued financial uncertainty, CIOs will both stay in the spotlight and need strong partnerships to ensure technology is deployed and managed effectively to deliver mission results.

To obtain a copy of the 2015 Federal CIO Survey report, click here.


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