Monday, November 09, 2009

Armor Piercing Projectiles Bounce Off Bullet-Proof Ignorance.

The SS190 AP loading of the 5.7x28mm cartridge, about which several in the media are prattling on as though they knew from which end of the weapon the bullet emerged, is not just "restricted", but actually illegal to import for any use but law-enforcement or the military. To the best of my knowledge, it cannot be purchased from Joe's Police Supply Co.; it sits in a customs-bonded cage at Fabrique Nationale's South Carolina facility until an order comes directly from a government agency. So that's not what was used at Fort Hood.

Further, unless your target is swaddled in Kevlar, the "super-scary cop killer" bullets are probably less effective than the plain vanilla kind.

Basically, even bringing it up is a red herring. Doc Jihadi could have done every bit as much damage with just about any pistol.

12 comments:

Dan said...

A 30 second wikipedia search is too much to ask for from a journalism/communications major. I was almost as upset at them referring to the MAGAZINE as a CLIP.
IIRC, a lot of the law enforcement agencies have passed on the SS190 cartridge because of it's poor terminal ballistics. Not good enough for the feds, but it's a super space age gun that goes thru metal detectors and costs more than you make in a year!

Anonymous said...

What do we expect? DCNN ran a simulation of Hasan's journey, making sure to highlight his stop at the gun shop as if he'd popped by, picked up the Five-Seven just like picking up a loaf of bread on the way home from work, and driven on to the scene of the massacre all in one trip.

Looks like we get to re-live the whole '80s "cop killer bullets" meme again. In the meantime, nobody asks why SOLDIERS are FORCED to be unarmed on their own base or why it took a CIVILIAN police officer to stop Hasan.

As for MiniTru's lack of firearms knowledge, I suggest a contest. Contestants submit either:

"Most egregious display of ignorance concerning firearms by MiniTru" or;

"Most blatant effort to turn reporting on a crime into an anti-2A screed"

Winner gets... um... bragging rights? A bottle of Rolaids?

Anonymous said...

That's not fair, with 10% + unemployment, it very well might cost more than 10% of people make in a year.

I'd be interested to seeing the wounding report from this.

Bram said...

So the 5.7 is "extremely powerful" and "extremely popular among criminal gangs." Extreme!

I love the reference-free journalism.

perlhaqr said...

And, of course, it's not just guns. They're this ignorant about everything. Though, admittedly, they have more direct antagonism for the world of firearms than most of the subjects they're plug-stupid about.

What a crock.

Lawrence Person said...

I just pretty much assume that any time the MSM does a gun story, they're going to get things wrong

Karl Rehn makes some of the same points (and many notes on surviving an 'active shooter" attack) in this mini-interview I did with him:

http://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=64

Anonymous said...

The funny things is not that they get things wrong about guns, it's that every time I know bugger all about a a semi/demi technical topic they obviously get THAT significantly wrong too as a general rule.

Which makes me wonder about that vast acreage that comprises all the things I do not know much about that I now suspect that they getting wrong without my knowing or caring enough to check.

rremington said...

Seeing as how he fired about 100 rounds while shouting Allah Akbar, I guess that really is the definition of Spray and Pray....

Pawpaw said...

Okay, so 'splain this on me.

If no cop has ever been killed with that cartridge, how can it be a cop-killer?

Enquiring minds and all that.

Tam said...

"...how can it be a cop-killer?"

Because the media says so! Duh!

Ian Argent said...

"The funny things is not that they get things wrong about guns, it's that every time I know bugger all about a a semi/demi technical topic they obviously get THAT significantly wrong too as a general rule."

"Which makes me wonder about that vast acreage that comprises all the things I do not know much about that I now suspect that they getting wrong without my knowing or caring enough to check."

RAH noted this in one of the articles that got sucked up into Expanded Universe. In particular, he noted that he had been on-site for a couple of events that TIme Magazine reported on, and the reports and his experiences did not match.

I assume the MSM is lucky to get within a couple of sigma of the truth and leave it at that.

Unknown said...

wulf shitzer an eminent journalist got a very low score on jeopardy suggesting that he is about 1 standard deviation below normL ON ANY REASONABLE iq SCORE. Only "prfession with lower IQ than teachers, frightening.