Department of Forensic Medicine, Medical University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland.
J Forensic Sci. 2021 Mar;66(2):779-785. doi: 10.1111/1556-4029.14618. Epub 2020 Nov 6.
Black powder weapons are rarely used in countries where access to firearms is easy. Poland has a fairly restrictive law regarding possession of firearms but under the Weapons and Munitions Act of May 21, 1999, as further amended, the possession of black powder weapons using separate loaded ammunition and manufactured before 1885, or replicas thereof, is legal without a permit. When the amendment was introduced, forensic pathologists anticipated a rush of cases involving such weapons, mainly suicides, but also accidents and homicides, but in our own practice in Lodz over the past 10 years (2010-2019) we have encountered only 7 such cases. Although the number is not particularly high, it does nevertheless account for nearly one-fifth of all gunshot deaths in the area. The aim of this paper is to present a series of deaths involving the use of black powder handguns. In analyzed cases, the victims were mostly men, they were sober, and their manner of death was suicide. As far as age was concerned, no regularity was found. All black powder handgun shots were characteristic enough in comparison with those from conventional firearms that they could be identified easily-the entrance wounds were larger than usual, there was a lot of gunpowder around them and in the wound canal, the bone fractures were extensive. Analysis of the literature and of our own material indicates that easy availability is not the only factor affecting the choice of a weapon; ease of use and reliability are also important.
黑火药武器在枪支容易获得的国家很少使用。波兰对枪支拥有有相当严格的法律规定，但根据 1999 年 5 月 21 日的《武器和弹药法》（经进一步修订），在没有许可证的情况下，合法拥有使用单独装弹和 1885 年前制造的黑火药武器或其复制品是合法的。当修正案出台时，法医病理学家预计会有大量涉及此类武器的案件，主要是自杀案件，但在我们自己在罗兹的实践中，在过去 10 年（2010-2019 年），我们只遇到了 7 起此类案件。尽管数量不是特别高，但它确实占该地区所有枪击死亡人数的近五分之一。本文的目的是介绍一系列涉及使用黑火药手枪的死亡案件。在分析的案例中，受害者大多是男性，他们清醒，死亡方式是自杀。就年龄而言，没有发现任何规律。与常规枪支相比，所有黑火药手枪射击都具有足够的特征，可以轻易识别——入口伤口比平时大，周围和伤口管内有大量火药，骨折广泛。对文献和我们自己的材料的分析表明，容易获得并不是影响武器选择的唯一因素；易用性和可靠性也很重要。
