Handgun Effectiveness
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Handgun Effectiveness is a measure of the stopping power of a handgun: its ability to incapacitate a hostile target as quickly and efficiently as possible.
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[edit] Overview
Handguns fire their projectiles at a significantly lower velocity than rifles. What they lack in power, they make up for in concealability and practicality. The lack of power they possess, and caliber/bullet effectiveness, are widely debated topics with growing experimental research among civilians, law enforcement, ammunition companies, and the military.
[edit] Factors
[edit] Cavitation
Handgun projectiles wound primarily through the size of the hole they produce. This hole is known as a permanent cavity. For comparison, rifles wound through temporary cavitation as well as permanent cavitiation. A temporary cavity is also known as a stretch cavity. This is because it acts to stretch the permanent cavity, increasing the wounding potential. An ideal velocity for successful temporary cavitation to occur is approximately 2300 ft/s (680 m/s), which is twice the speed of sound. Once this realm is broken, highly increased temporary cavitation effects can be observed.
Since most handgun rounds do not reach even 1500 ft/s (460 m/s), temporary cavitation plays little to no role in wounding. With high velocity arms such as rifles, a bullet that does not directly impact an organ inside the body can still damage or destroy it. This is not the case with handguns. A handgun round will only destroy an area it directly impacts. Certain organs such as the liver are the exception, where the organ might rupture even if the projectile doesn't strike it directly.
[edit] Penetration
There are many factors used to measure a handgun's effectiveness. One of them is penetration. The FBI standard penetration requirement for all service rounds is 12" penetration or greater in calibrated ballistic gelatin. This generally ensures a bullet will reach the vital organs from most angles. Penetration is arguably the most important factor in handgun wounding potential, because the vital areas must be destroyed or damaged to incapacitate.
[edit] Caliber
Another factor is expansion and caliber. Most civilians and practically all law enforcement agencies use jacketed hollow point or some form of expanding ammunition. This increases the chance of a handgun bullet striking a vital organ, and increases blood loss. Because of this, two different calibers could theoretically produce almost identical incapacitation results, provided the two penetrate the same area, and the small caliber expands to the size of the larger.
It is generally agreed upon that most intermediate handgun calibers will perform similarly, since their wounding principles are the same. A list of many handgun calibers can be found at List of handgun cartridges.
[edit] One-stop shots
The only scientifically proven and biologically possible way to produce instant incapacitation is through destruction of the central nervous system or brain. This will usually cease all motor related and voluntary actions. If the central nervous system is not damaged or destroyed, there will be no immediate incapacitation. To allow room for error, since a central nervous system hit is very unlikely, most people use expanding ammunition. This will increase the odds of striking a part of the central nervous system, and allow faster blood loss.
For example, a popular caliber in the United States is the 45ACP. It is the largest practical handgun caliber in use, featuring a bullet that is .452 inches in diameter. With well made expanding ammunition, a .452 bullet often expands to .70 caliber or larger. With a 9 mm Luger bullet, for example, its normal .355 diameter might be hoped to expand to .50 caliber or larger. This could give a preference for larger caliber bullets, as they do not rely on expansion as much as smaller caliber bullets do to provide incapacitation.
[edit] Armor
While larger caliber bullets generally do more damage against unarmored targets, they are poor penetrators of hard barriers and body armor due to their lower velocity and large surface area.
The current handgun cartridge in use by the U.S. Army and NATO is the 9 mm Luger. It provides a balance of penetration of armor and "stopping power". A full metal jacket 9 mm Luger bullet that penetrates the spinal cord, cutting a small .355 caliber hole, is usually more deadly than a .45acp expanding bullet which produces an .80 caliber wound in the torso, but stops short of the spinal cord.
[edit] Blood Loss
Blood loss is often a slow process in incapacitation, and even vital organ damage is often not enough to incapacitate immediately. It has been found that a human has around 10-15 seconds of consciousness and motor skills before unconsciousness with removal or complete destruction of the cardiac system (“experiment” with decapitated persons (including Lavoisier) during the French Revolution corroborates this[1] .
Often civilians or law enforcement in self-defense shootings have been criticized for shooting an intruder or suspect multiple times. This is often the only way to incapacitate, with each additional shot increasing the odds of striking the nervous system and increasing blood loss. There are many anecdotes where police officers would empty entire magazines into a suspect's torso to no visible effect.
The debates over caliber supremacy is a fallacy due to basic wounding principles. No single caliber has shown to provide heavily increased results in incapacitation. This is not to say that there is no difference in caliber effectiveness, because various calibers provide various advanatages over one another.
[edit] External links
- Firearms Tactical Institute-Wound Ballistics. Wound Ballistics.
- The Gun Zone. Handgun Wounding Factors.
- All About "Stopping Power". Comparison of Various Cailbers.
