"In fact, there is no reason for civilians to have handguns, period. Our citizens will be far safer, when only the police have handguns."
But they want their public sale banned to keep them out of the hands of thugs like Enchautegui's alleged killers, Steven Armento and Lillo Brancato.
"Cops want you untrained gun nuts to use bullets that will pass right through violent felons and kill innocent bystanders. Then we can pass more laws to take those away too. Friggin' gun nuts," stated retired Police Chief and aspiring Democratic city councilman Biff O'Flanahan. /sarc
Would anyone want to wait around for an ignorant guy like this to protect you from violent felons?
If hollow points are necessary for the cops they're necessary for the rest of us.
Was the officer not wearing his vest?
Moron.
It's like these people are from a completely different planet.
"In fact, there is no reason for civilians to have handguns, period. Our citizens will be far safer, when only the police have handguns."
So one would logically deduce that this is a good thing, right? Apparently unless you are a civilian. Apparently, civilians would be restricted to what they author refers to as "regular, "full-metal jacket" bullets". So apparently if you're a civilian, it's OK to shoot through the wall into the neighbor's apartment during a home invasion, I guess.
The idiots also muse "But they want their public sale banned to keep them out of the hands of thugs like Enchautegui's alleged killers, Steven Armento and Lillo Brancato...." and a further lines further down say "Anyone with a gun permit can buy the hollow-points in a gun shop. They also are readily available on the black market."
Which begs the question: Although you may have inconvenienced the homeowner described above by restricting him to military ammo (a point we'll visit later), what about things like Armento and Brancato? Do ya really think guys like these will say "shucks, no more hollowpoints down at Walmart, we're out of luck", or do you think that maybe, just maybe, these two upstanding Democrats (OK, I just threw that in) will just head on down to the old "black market" you referred to?
But I digress. You claim "The main difference between hollow-point and regular, "full-metal jacket" bullets is that the hollow-points flatten on impact and expand inside a target". Bravo. It shows that with a ,lot of repetition, you can get something right.
The author then goes on to say "An on-duty cop's bulletproof vest would likely provide the same protection from a hollow-point as a regular bullet."
Well, the fact is, a hollow-point is designed to crush on impact, and a ballistic vest will stop one quite effectively. That cannot always be said of full metal jacket ammunition, which is designed for the military, and will often penetrate body armor.
So I'm sure all the cops thank you for recommending "armor piercing ammunition" for potential cop killers.
OK, I know this is "GunStuff 101" to Freepers, but I swear, one day one of these press weenies is gonna take a class in gun basics and revolutionize mass media as we know it.
Hollowpoints can be made with a drill. It isn't the tool, it is the user, but arresting criminals is just so...sigh...judgemental!
Your mission is to investigate crimes, and then track down and capture for prosecution those who have already committed violent felonies.
Sometimes you get lucky, and arrive in time to interrupt the criminal.
ITMT, the victim needs every advantage they can muster, to survive.
How bizzare that a hollow point is used in a murder then they should be banned from all applications. This is typical of the kneejerk reactions that brought us DDT and handgun bans in MA. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1539551/posts
Hollow points have been around forever. They essentially let the bullet disipate it's energy inside the target.
Almost all hunting rounds are hollow points. They are also the bullets used for home defense. Frangables are better for that application but most people don't understand that. In home defense you don't want bullets going through walls and such.
So I guess if the cop was shot with a FMJ he would have lived?
What a stupid article.
You can probably produce them in your basement.
So what??
Its the nut behind the gun, not the bullet who amkes the decision to do the killing.
But the same jerks who defended Tookie Williams are in the forefront of harassing law-abiding gun-owners.
Illegal to hunt deer in Kentucky with full metal jacketed ammo. Hollow points are the most proficient.
eh.. i'd rather use glassers or frangibles for home defense anyway :)
Can't hollow points be cast at home as easily as solid bullet?
Hell with hollow points, I always found the gel ones far more cool...
Pass through soft tissue no problem, but far less likely to pass through walls and other objects.
One would hope that any bullet penetrates. It's passing through and hitting an unintended target that the hollow points are used by the NY police
Except in faciast communities like NYC or New Jersey, anyone over the age of 18 can buy hollow point ammo at their local Walmart
There is NOTHING uniqely potent about hollow point ammo. It expands - big deal, so does soft point and unjacketed lead. It just expands faster than jacketed soft point - because jacketed soft point is designed to expand slower to facilitate greater penetration.
Because of the fast expansion, hollow point is a great bullet design for hunting varmints and small game - loaded in a high velocity round you get high expansion very rapidly in only a couple of inches.
For the same reason, most hollow point bullets don't work all that well as a defensive round - they expand too quickly, resulting in relatively shallow penetration.
A bullet kills by penetrating deeply anough to reach large blood vessels and major organs, and by creating a big enough permanant hole to seriously damage or destroy same. A great deal of pharensic evidence exists to demonstrate that a round needs to reliably penetrate 8 - 12" of ballistic gelatin to be a reliable stopper. A lot of "home defense" and specialty "low penetration" ammo fails to do this.
The most effective defensive rounds for pistols include soft points and jacketed hollow points, but the JHP tend to be big (150 grain 357 mag, 147 grain 9mm, 170 grain .40) and either pretty high velocity (giving you good penetration despite the expansion, in the case of the 357 and 40) or relatively resistant to expansion (in the case of the 147 grain subsonic used by lots of police departments)
Honestly, the only thing that I have learned from the various articles posted about ammo and the NYPD (other than they use FMJ for their pistol ammo, which is a change from the days when everyone used unjacketed 38 ammo in their revolvers) is that most "journalists" don't know anything about guns or ammunition.
To hell with buying them.
Make them.