Thursday, February 24, 2005
Those nasty "Armor Piercing" guns
I keep my finger on the pulse of what is happening with the gun industry; that includes new guns, new laws and the polotics of the 2nd amendment. I see a trend happening and decided to write up this post to lay out my thoughts. I think we are about to let the term "Armor Piercing" be hijacked by the left the same way "Assault Rifle" was. There are several bills going through state legislatures intending to limit the sale and transfer of .50 rifles to citizens.; presumably because these rifles can be used by "terrorists" to do all kinds of nasty things.
Additionallly, the Senator from New Jersey has introduced a bill that would make it illegal for anyone, except a police officer or military official, to purchase or use an "assault pistol" that fires bullets capable of penetrating a bulletproof vest. And that is the real issue, my friends. By using the most powerfull commercially avaliable rifles and creating a class of "assault pistol" to deamonize as only usable by cop-killers and terrorists we are seeing the newest wave of attacks on firearms ownership in the US.
For those of you that don't know it, let me educate you on what a real armor piercing round is. Armor piercing, or AP for short, rounds are made to penetrate armor. (Duh!) They are made from harder materials such as teflon, brass or other dense metals or composites. (You need something larger than a pistol or rifle before depleated uranium rounds enter the picture!) AP rounds are restricted; you can't just go to the local gun show and buy them; it has been that way for many years.
But here is the real issue here; normal bullets can and will penetrate armor! There is the shocking truth! Bullets are small pieces of metal that are going really, really fast when they hit someone or something. If what they hit isn't strong enough to withstand the force of the speeding bullet, the the round will force its way through whatever it hits expending its kinetic energy to do so. That is the distinction the Left is unwilling to acknowlege; they want to steal the term "armor piercing" and make it apply to any bullet with enough power to defeat a police-man's vest. But when we look at how easy it is to do that, then just about all of the bullets on the market are now armor piercing!
Above are most of the commonly used pistol caliber rounds from the .22 up through the .44 and .50. The larger of these rounds has enough power to punch through some vests. But when we look at the collection of rifle caliber rounds below, note that all of these will punch trough a vest with no touble.
Are you starting to see what the real issue is here? The rifle bullets all have more powder behind the bullet so that the bullet goes faster and farther than with a smaller pistol round. It is the power of the charge behind the bullet, and not the bullet itself that makes these rounds capable of penetrating a typical armored vest. It is precisely because of the pistol rounds weaker power that armor piercing rounds were designed for them in the first place. Here is a better comparison of the difference:
Now to clarify I am generally taking about the type of vest worn by most law enforcement officers under their uniforms such as the one pictured below:
Many vests have better armor and even ceramic or steel "trauma plates" that are intended to stop larger, rifle caliber rounds. These plates will stop many larger rounds, but they only cover very vital parts of the chest, not the entire vest-area. And even it the vest does stop a round, the wearer is still going to be in a world of hurt! In fact, if a bullet hits the plate with enough force, the impact trauma can bruise the heart and kill the wearer without the bullet penetrating the plate!
So what we really have here is the Left's understanding that gun control for the most part isn't getting them any traction. So now they are "picking on the fringes" rather than the core of gun ownership. Not many people can afford a .50 rifle, let alone the ammo to shoot it on a regular basis. So by targeting a specific, small segment of the "gun culture" they want to introduce the idea that somehow the right to bear arms only means certain ones, and if you don't need it to hunt ducks then you are somehow out of the mainstream. Or worse, you are a prespective domestic terrorist!
I know some of you are already saving your pennies so you can buy a new .50 before a ban is placed on them, thus "grandfathering" in your ownership. While not a bad idea, it is the WRONG idea. We have momentum on our side; so playing defencively and allowing these bans to pass un-challenged while you "get yours" just isn't going to cut it.
Additionallly, the Senator from New Jersey has introduced a bill that would make it illegal for anyone, except a police officer or military official, to purchase or use an "assault pistol" that fires bullets capable of penetrating a bulletproof vest. And that is the real issue, my friends. By using the most powerfull commercially avaliable rifles and creating a class of "assault pistol" to deamonize as only usable by cop-killers and terrorists we are seeing the newest wave of attacks on firearms ownership in the US.
For those of you that don't know it, let me educate you on what a real armor piercing round is. Armor piercing, or AP for short, rounds are made to penetrate armor. (Duh!) They are made from harder materials such as teflon, brass or other dense metals or composites. (You need something larger than a pistol or rifle before depleated uranium rounds enter the picture!) AP rounds are restricted; you can't just go to the local gun show and buy them; it has been that way for many years.
But here is the real issue here; normal bullets can and will penetrate armor! There is the shocking truth! Bullets are small pieces of metal that are going really, really fast when they hit someone or something. If what they hit isn't strong enough to withstand the force of the speeding bullet, the the round will force its way through whatever it hits expending its kinetic energy to do so. That is the distinction the Left is unwilling to acknowlege; they want to steal the term "armor piercing" and make it apply to any bullet with enough power to defeat a police-man's vest. But when we look at how easy it is to do that, then just about all of the bullets on the market are now armor piercing!
Above are most of the commonly used pistol caliber rounds from the .22 up through the .44 and .50. The larger of these rounds has enough power to punch through some vests. But when we look at the collection of rifle caliber rounds below, note that all of these will punch trough a vest with no touble.
Are you starting to see what the real issue is here? The rifle bullets all have more powder behind the bullet so that the bullet goes faster and farther than with a smaller pistol round. It is the power of the charge behind the bullet, and not the bullet itself that makes these rounds capable of penetrating a typical armored vest. It is precisely because of the pistol rounds weaker power that armor piercing rounds were designed for them in the first place. Here is a better comparison of the difference:
Now to clarify I am generally taking about the type of vest worn by most law enforcement officers under their uniforms such as the one pictured below:
Many vests have better armor and even ceramic or steel "trauma plates" that are intended to stop larger, rifle caliber rounds. These plates will stop many larger rounds, but they only cover very vital parts of the chest, not the entire vest-area. And even it the vest does stop a round, the wearer is still going to be in a world of hurt! In fact, if a bullet hits the plate with enough force, the impact trauma can bruise the heart and kill the wearer without the bullet penetrating the plate!
So what we really have here is the Left's understanding that gun control for the most part isn't getting them any traction. So now they are "picking on the fringes" rather than the core of gun ownership. Not many people can afford a .50 rifle, let alone the ammo to shoot it on a regular basis. So by targeting a specific, small segment of the "gun culture" they want to introduce the idea that somehow the right to bear arms only means certain ones, and if you don't need it to hunt ducks then you are somehow out of the mainstream. Or worse, you are a prespective domestic terrorist!
I know some of you are already saving your pennies so you can buy a new .50 before a ban is placed on them, thus "grandfathering" in your ownership. While not a bad idea, it is the WRONG idea. We have momentum on our side; so playing defencively and allowing these bans to pass un-challenged while you "get yours" just isn't going to cut it.
# posted by Master Shake @ 6:34 AM 
