Rep. Jennifer Boylan introduced a bill that is intended to assist law enforcement in solving gun-related crimes by taking advantage of a national ballistics analysis database. And recently, the RI House of Representatives approved the legislation. 

The legislation — 2025-H 5130A — would require police departments to provide ballistic crime evidence or test-fired casings to the State Crime Lab or a qualified law enforcement agency for ballistics examination and into the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) whenever they suspect that a gun has been used in a crime.

“It would be unthinkable for law enforcement to arrest a person suspected of committing a violent crime and not take their fingerprints,” said Rep. Boylan (D-Dist. 66, Barrington, East Providence). “The National Integrated Ballistic Information Network is the ballistic evidence equivalent, and it must be used universally to get the maximum benefit for our police officers to connect and solve crimes.”

NIBIN is a database system that allows federal, state and local law enforcement to match fired cartridge casings to the guns from which they were fired, making it easier for law enforcement to connect multiple crime scenes and catch shooters. 

“The system takes ballistic evidence from firearms and cross-references that evidence with other evidence residing in the database, looking for likely matches,” Rep. Boylan said.  

Use of NIBIN indicates that the recovered casings were likely fired from the same firearm. This allows investigators to develop a more complete picture of what happened and who was involved, as well as linking crime scenes connected by a common gun.

Rep. Boylan first became aware of the underused potential of NIBIN when she served on the Working Group for Gun Safety, convened by then-Governor Raimondo in 2018. The group, composed of 51 members representing federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, attorneys, educators, veterans, academics, students and experts in the fields of public and behavioral health, noted that while some departments used NIBIN consistently, statewide use of the database was inconsistent and not always timely enough to be useful to criminal investigation. Prior to August 2022, the only NIBIN machine in Rhode Island was located at the state crime lab. The attorney general’s office now has a machine, giving police departments an additional option to run NIBIN analysis.

The bill would also require law enforcement to submit information about crime guns to the ATF for tracing, including make, model and serial number. This allows the ATF to track the movement of crime guns throughout the country to identify illegal firearm trafficking.

The measure now moves to the Senate where similar legislation (2025-S 0059) has been introduced by Senate Majority Whip David P. Tikoian (D-Dist. 22, Smithfield, Lincoln, North Providence).