'KILLER': I HAD COP OUTGUNNED

NY Post ^ | Jan. 11, 2006 | DENISE BUFFA

[Gondring]

In older editions, the AP Stylebook had a section on firearms for editors to reference (since so few journalists had any knowledge of them, I presume!) I'm wondering if the reporter just got the muzzle energy equation all goofed up when someone tried to explain it.

[tcostell]

Yeah... I don't think Bloomberg gets out much. I can't wait to hear how Jeb Bush is going to react when told that he has to make handguns illegal in Florida to help the liberal Mayor of New York City win points on the upper west side.

It just goes to show you that you should never let a liberal democrat be in charge of anything, even if they claim to be a Republican.

[Oztrich Boy]

In fact, the 9 mm is a .36 caliber bullet compared to a .357 caliber bullet.

No. the 9mm is a smaller diameter than the .357.

The measument is made differently, and the 9mm bullet diameter is only









.356" (that extra 1/1000 can hurl a man back 10 feet)

[LoneConservative]

I have no idea why he had a .25. Most of my friends in the NYPD carry a .38 for backup, or as an off-duty weapon. As far as I know, It's not a requirement for an NYPD officer to be armed off duty, either, but they DO have to have ID at all times.

[FreedomPoster]

Bingo. The physics of the situation just don't work as described.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Experts say the .357 Magnum is significantly more powerful than a 9mm because the bullets are bigger and leave the gun nearly twice as fast."

Typical dumb-ass reporter.

.357 = 0.357 inches diameter
9 mm = 0.354 inches diameter

Now "twice as fast" makes a difference, and if the bullets are of significantly different masses---but NOT 0.003" difference in diameter.

[MarkL]

I frown on cop killing. I also don't believe a pistol round would send anybody on a ten foot flight. Action=Reaction. Basic physics was part of my "rounded curriculum".

It's amazing what people believe. For instance, when I was little, a cop (the father of a friend) told me that .45s should be outlawed, except for the police, because they were too powerful. That no matter where it hit you, it would knock you off your feet. If it hit you in the finger, it would knock you off your feet! I asked a very simple question, even for a little kid, "why wouldn't it just tear your finger off, instead of knocking you down?" I never did get an answer to that one.

Mark

[SJSAMPLE]

If this guy's got that power over physics, we should release him to the care and custody of NASA.

[MarkL]

A perfect example of media accuracy. How can you consider anyone an expert who thinks the 357 has a significantly larger bullet and travels twice as fast? Perhaps they meant muzzle energy? A 125 gr bullet at 1450 fps has about twice the energy of a 115 at 1100.

And technically, the writer did get the bullet size thing correct too... A jacketed 9mm is .355", while a jacketed .357 is .357". So, the .357 does fire a larger bullet: Larger by 2/1000 of an inch!

Mark

[SJSAMPLE]

You would be surprised at the number of .45 Kool-Aid drinkers who still talk about "knock down power" and "stopping power".

1. Shot placement
2. Penetration

Anything else belongs to marketing departments.

[Drawsing]

My concealed carry instructor did a lot of myth-busting during my training. One myth busted was the Hollywood standard of showing people flying through the air backwards after being hit with a bullet.

[Puppage]

Some vests (type 2 and above) protect against the 357 magnum

And, yet my knife can cut right through it.

[.cnI redruM]

No, he didn't fly ten feet. A .357 has more stopping power than a 9mm, in most gun vs. gun comparisons. However, it's not a frikken hand grenade.

[kstewskis]

1. Shot placement

2. Penetration

That was my first thought when reading this.

A shredded aortic artery is a shredded aortic artery, no matter how it gets there.

[Pharmboy]

No. He was off-duty, and the vest was back at his precinct in his locker. My son is NYPD and that was the first question I asked him.

[KarinG1]

A flight of fancy I suppose.

[Eagles6]

9mm, .38, .357 all take the same diameter bullet.

[Pharmboy]

What are the NYPD rules for off-duty weapons?

[Maigrey]

That is why they are journalists: It's because they can't do any math. If they could, thwy would be working in the real world.

[yarddog]

Well thirty years ago when most cops carried .357 mags, we kept getting media stories of cops being "outgunned" by the crooks with high capacity 9mm's.

Well the cops go to high cap 9's and now .40's. The media now says the cops are "outgunned" because the .357 magnum is so much more powerful.

What is all boils down to is the media are going to portray those evil guns that us regular people have as somehow more evil than those the poor cops carry.