AIRGUN QUALIFICATIONS RESUME
STANTON O. BERG
Forensic Firearms Consultant
6025 Gardena Lane, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55432
763-571-0551
EXPERIENCE
a. Lifelong user (since age 10) of airguns of both rifle and pistol type. As a youth, (age 10-20) I owned and used a King (Markham) spring piston air rifle, a Daisy Red Ryder spring piston air rifle, a Daisy Targeteer spring piston air pistol and a Crosman (Sears/J. C. Higgins) CO2 air pistol.
- Airgun Consultant for 32 years. Handled 45 airgun cases as a consultant beginning in 1972.
(935 + total cases of firearms, airguns, ammunition and related items)
c. Reference Collection. I currently own, 67 makes and models of airguns in my reference collection. Several of these have been cutaway to expose the internal operational mechanism for reference and exhibit purposes. The reference collection represents all three basic types of airguns. (Spring piston, CO2, and Pneumatic.) The models represent a time span of 1914 to current date.
Note(1): See attached listing of airguns in collection..
Note(2): There is a close correlation between firearm safety devices and airgun safety devices. All present airgun safety design types were first invented for firearms long before being adapted for use on an airgun. The most significant difference between airguns and firearms is in the use of air rather then gunpowder as a projectile propellant. I have been a combination airgun/firearms consultant on 935 + cases.
AIRGUN RESEARCH PROJECTS
1. Airgun Safeties: This is an on going project started in the year 1985.
a. A special "State of the Art" research paper has been completed and is in a state of continual revision and update. Airgun safeties from 1779 to-date. (The paper was first Published in the AFTE Journal, April 1992: "Air Gun Safety Designs")
b. A computer data base of airgun safeties was also established in 1985, and at the present time has approximately 509 different makes and models of airgun safeties identified and arranged by make, model and production time period.
c. A special emphasis has been made as it relates to automatic safety devices for airguns. 207 such airgun safeties have been identified and computerized.
d. Note: My reference collection contains 34 airguns that have automatic safeties.
(Overall safety data base of 3661 records.)
e. A slide lecture was presented to the AFTE (Association of Firearms and Tool Mark Examiners.) Training Seminar at North Palm Beach, Florida on 30 April 1992 entitled: "Airgun Safety Systems and Designs".
2. Airgun Trigger Pulls: A special study of airgun trigger pulls has been made.
a. Approximately 914 measured and recorded airgun trigger pulls and trigger pull standards have been recorded and computerized.
Note: Trigger pulls of both firearms and airguns have been a matter of special interest for some time. The overall trigger pull data base has over 5175 records.
b. A slide lecture was made to the IAI 75th Educational Conference (International Association for Identification) at Nashville, TN, 13 July 1990 entitled: "Trigger Pull: A safety Design Factor". A discussion of the present ASTM airgun stan dard for trigger pull was included in the lecture.
c. The above paper was published in the Journal of Forensic Identification, (Volume 41, No. 4.) July/August 1991 under the title of: "Trigger Pull - A Safety Design Factor".
3. Airgun loading/feed systems:
a. A special study (on-going) has been completed on airgun feeding and loading systems as it relates to improvements over the simple gravity feed and load system as found in many present airguns. Such improvements are:
1. Removable magazines.
2. Positive feed systems.
3. Visible magazine systems.
b. A slide lecture on the subject was presented to the 76th Annual Educational Conference of the International Association for Identification (IAI) in St. Louis, Missouri on 11 July 1991. "Airgun Loading/Feeding Safety System Designs".
c. The above paper has been published in the Journal of Forensic Identification. September/October 1992 issue, volume 42, No. 5, pages 387-395. "Air Gun Loading/Feeding Safety System Designs."
4. Airgun Velocity and Energy Levels:
a. A special data base has been created for airgun projectile velocity and energy levels of various makes and models of airgun. Both BB and pellet values are considered. This data base includes airguns of all three basic types. (Spring piston, CO2 and pneumatic.) Currently there are 306 records in this data base.
b. A paper on “Daisy 880 Velocity” was published in the Wound Ballistics Review, 1998, Volume 3, No. 3. This paper discusses the velocity levels of BBs fired in the Daisy 880 Powerline rifle resulting from different pump levels and also reviews the Daisy velocity standards for this model. The lethal effect of pneumatic air rifle BBs was also discussed.
NATIONAL AIRGUN DESIGN STANDARDS
ASTM Standards Development Committee. (American Society for Testing and Materials. Member of ASTM since 1989.) Sub-committee F-15.06 on Non Powder Gun Products. (Airguns) Participated in the subcommittee since April 1990. F-08.24on Paintball Guns & Systems. (Airguns) October 1994 to date.
EXPERT AIRGUN TRIAL TESTIMONY
1. 1987: Kansas District Court, Johnson County, Olathe, Kansas. Expert testimony admit ted on airgun safety designs. (David Ma son v. Daisy Manufacturing Co.)
2. 1989: United States District Court, Northern District of New York, Binghampton, New York. Expert testimony admitted on airgun safety designs. (Action under the Consumer Product Safety Act. Brown v. Daisy Manufacturing Co.)
3. 1990: New York Supreme Court, Syracuse, New York. Expert testimony admitted on airgun safety designs. (Jeffrey Brown v. Daisy Manufacturing Co.)
NOTES
2 July 1982: The Daisy Manufacturing Co., Rogers, AR solicited my services in a project for the determination of the penetra tion capability of BB projectiles. Request by Josh B. Type, Daisy Quality Assurance Manager.
2001: The U. S. Government, Consumer Product Safety Commission retained me as a Consultant on Airguns in regard to their investigation of the feeding-loading and safety systems of the Daisy Powerline airguns.
(June 2004)