Posted on 02/29/2008 5:32:07 AM PST by OKSooner
A safety alert put out by the Atlanta Police Department's homeland security unit, warns officers to be extra careful because of the ammunition.
Brian Hill with Tulsa's U.S. Shooting Academy agreed to help test the ammunition.
The ad for the ammunition says it shoots dozens of steel darts that cause unbelievable trauma.
Police are facing a deadly new threat. It's a new type of ammunition that can penetrate a bullet-proof vest. News On 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright found anyone can buy it.
A safety alert put out by the Atlanta Police Department's homeland security unit, warns officers to be extra careful because of the ammunition.
Brian Hill with Tulsa's U.S. Shooting Academy agreed to help test the ammunition.
The academy teaches everything from basic self-defense to highly specialized weapons training to citizens, police officers and the military.
A police vest was put on a dummy and Hill took a couple of shots.
It could be seen that the vest was penetrated all the way through.
The ad for the ammunition says it shoots dozens of steel darts that cause unbelievable trauma.
Hill says NATO would not allow the military to use something like this, because although it can kill, it's intended to maim. He says to get self-protection, there are much better choices.
"If stopping an intruder in your home is your goal, this isn't the first or second ammo you should choose, its way down the list," said Hill.
The results were shown to tactical expert Sergeant Luke Sherman with the Tulsa Police Department.
Sergeant Sherman says officers worry more about seeing a gun than what ammunition is inside, but it's still hard to understand, marketing something that penetrates a vest.
"Millions of Americans have firearms and are always experimenting with new things. Maybe it was somebody's idea to market something that will be neat down the road, but, to me, it's not," said Sergeant Sherman.
One of the shells contains a dozen steel darts, just as advertised.
Hill shot the vest with a .40-caliber firearm. The bullet did not penetrate the 15-year-old vest.
The ammunition is legal, it's just a reminder the dangerous new threats police officers constantly face.
One sergeant recently briefed his squad on this new ammunition, just to make them aware it exists.
“Ever been shot at? Clear, precise thinking doesnt always accompany the experience.”
I have been shot at and missed a few times and I have been in the presence of other men that were being shot and hit and none of it ever bothered me much, in fact once me and a friend were being shot at as we fled a place and I was laughing so hard that I drove back and started honking and causing noise, hoping to get them started up again.
The only time a shooting ever disturbed me was when three guys were hit in a bar shooting and a cop would not perform first aid or allow me to.
The ammo described sounds like a long-available 12ga round.
Usually.
Don't worry, it happens to all of us at one time or another.
I've been here since before 9/11 and I only have to go back a few days to find a time when I needed to apologize!
IIRC, it took the city YEARS to get around to paying for them.
This is unbelievable!
What if you make bullets out of this:
Then you’ll stick too the wall in just seconds.....:o)
But wait that’s not all !
Won’t work. They’d stop the leak...
“I’ve been here since before 9/11 and I only have to go back a few days to find a time when I needed to apologize!”
The ability to ask forgiveness and then have the other person forgive, is just one of the reasons I like it here.
Me too!
So much for their training I guess. Shots fired, commence to panic and mayhem.
Sis is ‘just’ a street cop.
She did bust a Pali on the Terrorist watch list, so some exciment is had upon occation.
But day to day, just drunks, domestic issues and lots & lots of bad drivers. The domestic stuff is scary, she had a couple of lost time injuries but the drunk drivers scare her spitless.
When I get into town for a visit, I always ask (and usually get) to go along on the drunk driving patrols run by the Dept. Scary stuff indeed.
The article is poorly written and confusing. If you follow the link in the original post, there’s a video link on the story page showing the reporter and the firearms instructor shooting a dummy with vest with a shotgun, then with a handgun.
The ‘new and dangerous’ ammunition is a 12-gauge flechette round. As several posters have mentioned, that round has been available for years.
Not sure why they shot the vest with the handgun. I guess just to show that it would stand up to what it’s designed for.
Why would someone need a three-round cylinder? If you use both hands to fire the thing, how do you fire your second shot with broken wrists? I could understand a two-round cylinder for single-handed firing, but unless someone has three hands, what's the third round for?
IMHO, SWAT should be left to specially-trained dedicated teams. Too many police departments engage in SWAT-style raids without the training necessary to make such practices safe for anyone.
12ga with flechette rounds will do the same thing. And flechettes are amazingly simple to make.
Black Rhino I believe. Looking into the story behind those is what made me realize that gun-control proponents were liars.
At least it won't seriously injure someone like these dangerous, radical dart rounds. /sarc
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