Free Republic

In a surprising break from decades of compliance with a 19th century treaty, the Army has said it will likely allow its troops to use hollow-point and frangible ammunition in its handguns, arguing the rounds are commonly used by law enforcement and for self defense and pose less of a risk to bystanders than fully jacketed rounds. The previous ban on the use of hollowpoint ammunition for military rifles and handguns stems from the first Hague Convention of 1899, where ammunition that “expand or flatten easily” was banned for use in war. Though the United States never ratified that part...

In Israel this week, people are lining up for gas masks, a new Homeland Defense has been set to work to deal with the task of readying the country for the possibility of attacks from Iran, Lebanon and Gaza, and pundits are working overtime trying to figure out whether the nation’s political leadership is serious about launching a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities sometime this fall. Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, is doing his best to convince Americans that the saber-rattling coming out Jerusalem is not a bluff aimed at forcing the West to toughen sanctions on...

We've seen our Government buy a lot of ammunition lately and we have speculated 'why?' Is this routine? Do we do this every year? Are the purchase amounts in-line with what has been happening since the Bush Administration and September 11, 2001 - which changed everything? We don't know. Is the Government buying up ammo so a shortage occurs for you and me? Are we the targets? We don't know. We don't know why even the Social Security Agency is armed, while our Border Agents patrol with bean bag guns. One Retired Army Major General says the Military in Iraq...

The short story is the Social Security Administration (SSA) has 295 special agents working in 66 offices throughout the U.S. They have full authority to be armed. Standard issue is ".357 Sig 125 grain bonded jacked hollow point pistol ammunition." These agents investigate allegations of Social Security fraud and respond to threats against Social Security offices, employees and customers...but they cannot stop sending checks to dead people or other unworthy recipients. Hollow points won't stop the theft of my Social Security. We can feel safe though, as each agent now has almost 600 rounds of his very own. National Oceanic...

The Department of Homeland Security purchased 450 million rounds of ammunition followed by the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration buying 46,000 wounds. This is now being followed by the Social Security Administration buying 174,000 rounds to be delivered to 41 locations around the country. What is this all about?

<p>A Facebook post went viral Wednesday after the father of a 15-year-old girl decided her online activity was disrespectful, but it’s bringing her a kind of fame she probably never imagined. Her punishment? Eight exploding, hollow-point rounds from a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol, straight into her laptop.</p>

A 20-year-old Cranston man faces a felony charge of carrying a pistol without a permit and weapons violations after police discovered a loaded Glock .40 caliber pistol in his glove compartment at a crash scene. Nicholas Desjarlais, of 29 Seminole Trail, Cranston, was also charged with reckless driving for the Dec. 31 incident. He was taken into police custody after an accident at the intersection of Sockanossett Cross Road and Pontiac Avenue involving injuries, police said. Police said they found a folding Smith and Wesson pocketknife in Desjarlais' pocket and the Glock Model 22 handgun was found in his car's...

A 30-year-old Bethlehem man was arraigned today for possessing 10 .40-caliber hollow point rounds in Phillipsburg, court records show. According to Phillipsburg police: Roddley W. Watson Jr., of the 1000 block of East Fourth Street, was stopped about 1 a.m. Nov. 23 after police responded to Morris and Raymond streets for a report of a hit and run. When police spoke with Watson, they saw in plain view a "Glock pistol magazine loaded with hollow point ammunition in the driver's side-door compartment." Watson was not in possession of a weapon. Watson told police he owned the magazine but forgot to...

Blame Hollywood. Blame the evening news. Blame your Uncle Jim. There is a lot of incorrect information out there on firearms and ammunition. For whatever reason, bullet design and performance seems to have the largest amount of myths and half-truths circling around it. Some of these false beliefs have led to bad movie scenes and even worse, bad laws. When a handgun is loaded for self defense, most instructors advise to use quality hollow point ammunition. But why? The Hollow Point Bullet A hollow point bullet is a bullet that has some type of cavity scooped out of the center....

BRANCHBURG -- Somerset County investigators seized a cache of weapons including a grenade launcher and hundreds of rounds of ammunition today from the Branchburg motel room of a Virginia man, who also had maps of a U.S. military facility and an out-of-state civilian community. Lloyd Woodson, 43, whose last known address was Reston, Va., today faces multiple offenses, including second-degree unlawful weapons possession and fourth-degree possession of prohibited weapons, Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne Forrest said. At the time of his arrest, Woodson was wearing a military-style ballistic vest with a reinforced steel plate and carrying a .223-caliber assault rifle that...

Should a situation arise at the Weston schools that requires an armed response, local police are ready to answer the call. Last week, officers in the Weston Police Department, including Chief John Troxell, participated in high-tension rifle training exercises to prepare them for emergency shooter situations. The exercises were held over the course of three days at the rifle range on Valley Forge Road and were led by School Violence Solutions, an active shooter training program. The instructor of the program was Allan Garcia, a police sergeant with the Middletown Police Department in Rhode Island. “Since Columbine, local police...

An Army judge advocate general (JAG) temporarily banned Army and Marine Corps snipers from using a highly accurate open-tip bullet. The JAG, we are told, mistakenly thought the open-tip round was the same as hollow-point ammunition, which is banned. The original open-tip was known as Sierra MatchKing and broke all records for accuracy in the past 30 years.

JAG, we are told, mistakenly thought the open-tip round was the same as hollow-point ammunition, which is banned. The original open-tip was known as Sierra MatchKing and broke all records for accuracy in the past 30 years. The difference between the open-tip and the hollow point is that the open tip is a design feature that improves accuracy while the hollow point is designed for increasing damage when it hits a target. About 10 days ago, the Army JAG in Iraq ordered all snipers to stop using the open-tip 175-grain M118LR bullet, claiming, falsely, it was prohibited. Instead of the...

Hollowed bullet easy to get & hard to survive BY ALISON GENDAR and DAVE GOLDINER DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS Hollow-point bullets like the one used in the slaying of Officer Daniel Enchautegui are much deadlier than ordinary bullets - and nearly as easy to get. Cops favor using the hollow-point bullets because they are less likely to pass through a target and ricochet into a fellow cop or bystander. 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. "Our mission is to stop violent...

As the Senate considers legislation to prohibit abusive lawsuits against Second Amendment rights, Sen. Ted Kennedy is offering an amendment to ban ammunition. Kennedy claims that he is aiming at "cop-killer" bullets, but he appears to be badly misinformed on the issue. There never has been any such thing as a "cop-killer" bullet. The issue is a fiction, invented for purposes of politics, not public safety. In any case, since 1986, federal law has prohibited the rare types of handgun ammunition that have unusual abilities to penetrate body armor. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reports that current...

<p>A campaign aiming to change controversial ammunition used by the U.S. Border Patrol is under way. Critics of "controlled expansion bullets" contend the hollow-point bullets - used by the Border Patrol since the 1970s - are unnecessarily lethal.</p> <p>When a Washington, D.C.-based legal support group learned that the agency requested a five-year supply of the rounds, it saw an opportunity to attack their use. "We don't think that (hollow points) are necessary, they cause massive injuries," said Donald Kerwin, executive director of Washington, D.C.,- based Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. "We were shocked to find that they're standard issue for the Border Patrol and other immigration agents."</p>