For certification tests, bullets are fired no closer than three inches from the edge so the destructive energy can dissipate, a company spokesman, Gregg Smith, said.
The game has, thankfully, kept the tried and tested bullet pass and lob pass but introduced the double-tap touch pass to drop the ball in between defenders when throwing deep passes, the low pass to find wide receivers in tight spots and high jump throws.
Mr. Stone, 68, used a lead testing process that he usually uses on deer carcasses to test for bullets in New York.
For instance, the University of Pittsburgh and the Electric Power Research Institute joined together recently on research to offer scientists a relatively simple tool for conducting the chemical equivalent of ballistics testing on bullets, taking aim at nitrogen molecules.
But until now, law enforcement officials had thought the attacks in the Washington area had not begun until Oct. 2. Police officials said initial ballistics tests on bullet fragments from the Sept. 14 shooting were inconclusive.
The Massachusetts bill would enable such traces by requiring that all gun makers shipping a firearm into the state for sale accompany it with a test-fired bullet and shell casing.
"You talk about testing with real bullets, this is going to be testing election reform with real ballots," said Doug Chapin, executive director of a nonpartisan election watchdog group, electionline.org.org
"Is there a silver bullet test as to whether this is where Odysseus landed?" Bittlestone mused.
For each, it seems, the other passes what Andrew S. Grove, a founder and former chairman of Intel, calls the "silver bullet test" of strategic competition.
