NFEA 2501 ACTUAL UPDATED QUESTIONS AND CORRECT ANSWERS
What does AFTE stand for? Association of Firearm and Toolmark Examiners
What does ANAB stand for? ANSI (American National Standards Institute) National Accreditation Board
What is accreditation vs certification? Accreditation - a lab is recognized to be competent to perform certain tasks by
meeting standards
Certification - a person is verified as competent to perform certain tasks by a third
party
Do you have to be certified? No
Does certification equal competent? Not necessarily, you can be competent without being certified
When can you become AFTE certified? After two years of training and three years of being a full-time examiner (5 years
total)
What is a proficiency test? Evalutation of an examiner's performance against pre-set criteria to ensure an
examiner is still proficient in the field.
Administered every year
What is a competency test? Evaluation of an examiner's performance against pre-set criteria to ensure an
examiner is competent to perform case work.
Administered at the end of training
What does ISO stand for? Interntional Organization for Standardization
What is your lab accredited in? ISO/IEC 17025 (Forensic) Testing and Calibration
What does NIST stand for? National Institute of Standards and Technology
What does OSAC stand for? Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science
What does OSAC do? Develop and promote standards
What does PCAST stand for? President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
When was PCAST? 2016
What did PCAST say? Doesn't match criteria for foundational validity (Lacks black box studies)
, What constitutes Foundational Validity? repeatable, reliable, accurate, and in principle it's reliable.
Sufficient studies on reliability and error rates
Problems with PCAST report? Disregarded inconclusive, disregarded previous studies and work, set forth new
criteria without consultation (2 black box studies), black box is not the only
reliable study, verification and review was not included
Will PCAST reissue? No
Does FATM meet foundational validity now? Yes, two black box studies with a known error rate
What were the two black box studies? AMES I and AMES II
When was AMES I? 2014
Error rate on AMES I? Approximately 1.5% (1 in 66 false positive error rate), PCAST said approximately
2.2%
What specimens were used for the Ames I study? Cartridge cases
Who wrote the Ames I study? David Baldwin, Stanley Bajic, Max Morris, Daniel Zamzow
When was AMES II? 2020
Error rate on AMES II? Less than 1% false positive error rate
What specimens were used for the Ames II study? Bullets and cartridge cases
Who wrote the Ames II study? Keith Monson, Erich Smith, Stanley Bajic
When was the Hamby & Brundage study? 2018
What were the specimens of the Hamby & Brundage Bullets
study?
What was the concept of the Hamby & Brundage study? Bullets fired from ten consecutively rifled 9mm Ruger barrels
What were the results of the Hamby & Brundage study? All were correctly identified, with eight inconclusive results among the 697
responses
What was the error rate of the Hamby & Brundage study? There were no true "errors" but there were eight inconclusive results among five
examiners
What does AFTE stand for? Association of Firearm and Toolmark Examiners
What does ANAB stand for? ANSI (American National Standards Institute) National Accreditation Board
What is accreditation vs certification? Accreditation - a lab is recognized to be competent to perform certain tasks by
meeting standards
Certification - a person is verified as competent to perform certain tasks by a third
party
Do you have to be certified? No
Does certification equal competent? Not necessarily, you can be competent without being certified
When can you become AFTE certified? After two years of training and three years of being a full-time examiner (5 years
total)
What is a proficiency test? Evalutation of an examiner's performance against pre-set criteria to ensure an
examiner is still proficient in the field.
Administered every year
What is a competency test? Evaluation of an examiner's performance against pre-set criteria to ensure an
examiner is competent to perform case work.
Administered at the end of training
What does ISO stand for? Interntional Organization for Standardization
What is your lab accredited in? ISO/IEC 17025 (Forensic) Testing and Calibration
What does NIST stand for? National Institute of Standards and Technology
What does OSAC stand for? Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science
What does OSAC do? Develop and promote standards
What does PCAST stand for? President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
When was PCAST? 2016
What did PCAST say? Doesn't match criteria for foundational validity (Lacks black box studies)
, What constitutes Foundational Validity? repeatable, reliable, accurate, and in principle it's reliable.
Sufficient studies on reliability and error rates
Problems with PCAST report? Disregarded inconclusive, disregarded previous studies and work, set forth new
criteria without consultation (2 black box studies), black box is not the only
reliable study, verification and review was not included
Will PCAST reissue? No
Does FATM meet foundational validity now? Yes, two black box studies with a known error rate
What were the two black box studies? AMES I and AMES II
When was AMES I? 2014
Error rate on AMES I? Approximately 1.5% (1 in 66 false positive error rate), PCAST said approximately
2.2%
What specimens were used for the Ames I study? Cartridge cases
Who wrote the Ames I study? David Baldwin, Stanley Bajic, Max Morris, Daniel Zamzow
When was AMES II? 2020
Error rate on AMES II? Less than 1% false positive error rate
What specimens were used for the Ames II study? Bullets and cartridge cases
Who wrote the Ames II study? Keith Monson, Erich Smith, Stanley Bajic
When was the Hamby & Brundage study? 2018
What were the specimens of the Hamby & Brundage Bullets
study?
What was the concept of the Hamby & Brundage study? Bullets fired from ten consecutively rifled 9mm Ruger barrels
What were the results of the Hamby & Brundage study? All were correctly identified, with eight inconclusive results among the 697
responses
What was the error rate of the Hamby & Brundage study? There were no true "errors" but there were eight inconclusive results among five
examiners
