Teflon coated bullet
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Some kinds of small arms ammunition use malleable coatings to reduce barrel wear. Teflon is one common coating for ammunition, although Molybdenum disulphide is also used.
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[edit] History
In the 1960s Dr. Paul Kopsch (an Ohio coroner), Daniel Turcos (a police sergeant) and Donald Ward (Dr. Kopsch's special investigator), began experimenting with special purpose handgun ammunition. Their objective was to develop a law enforcement round capable of improved penetration against hard targets, such as windshield glass and automobile doors. Conventional bullets, made primarily from lead, often become deformed and ineffective after striking hard targets, especially when fired at handgun velocities.
After some experimentation with steel rounds, the officers settled on a brass core with a 'lubricating' jacket of Teflon. These bullets wore-out barrels far more quickly than normal jacketed rounds, as unlike lead the immalleable brass did not deform to fit the rifling. For this reason, the bullets were coated with a layer of Teflon to reduce barrel wear. The inventors named the round the 'KTW Bullet,' after their initials. As well as being capable of penetrating car doors and windshields, the new rounds offered increased penetration against some types of bullet resistant vests.
In 1982, the NBC TV network ran a special on the bullets and argued that the bullets were a threat to police. Gun control organizations in the US labelled Teflon-coated bullets "cop killers", as 'KTW'-derived bullets were often capable of penetrating the Kevlar bullet-resistant vests worn by American police. Due to a popular misconception, possibly caused by the fact that a "Teflon bullet" sounds more remarkable than a "brass bullet," many people believed that the Teflon coating was responsible for the increased penetration, despite it being only a jacket for the brass penetrator. No law enforcement personnel have yet been killed by this type of armor piercing round when wearing appropriate body armor, making the nickname “cop killer” somewhat misleading. The controversy surrounding Teflon-coating can be seen as an episode of moral panic, and yet another source of contention between gun-control and gun-rights activists.
[edit] Legal Status
The federal ban on armor-piercing ammunition uses the only composition of the bullet core to determine legality. However, many states have legislation restricting various kinds of coating materials. For example, South Carolina state law specifically bans "ammunition or shells that are coated with polytetrafluoroethylene (teflon)"(SC Code 16-23-520)
[edit] Popular culture
Popular culture has picked up surrounding KTW ammunition with references to "teflon coated" or "cop killer" bullets appearing in movies.
- In Lethal Weapon 3, Mel Gibson's character uses "cop killer" bullets from a submachine gun to shoot through the thick blade of a bulldozer, while in Ronin, Robert de Niro's character is wounded when a bullet "sprayed...with teflon" penetrates his body armor.
- In the videogame Syphon Filter 3 the K3G4 submachine gun fires "teflon covered bullets" to penetrate flak jackets according to the in-game data. Enemies using these weapons hurt the player significantly more than normal enemies.
- In all of these cases, the penetration of the ammunition is greatly overstated[1][2].
