User:Fluzwup/APHA

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Armor piercing handgun ammunition, also variously called Teflon coated bullets or cop killer bullets, is a class of mostly mythical bullets made solely to penetrate ballistic vests of the type often worn by police officers.

Contents 1 United States federal definition 2 Typical bullet construction 3 Bullet coatings 4 Bullet penetration and soft body armor 5 KTW armor piercing handgun ammunition 6 Ref parking 7 References

[edit] United States federal definition

Under Title 18, UNITED STATES CODE, CHAPTER 44 as amended by Public Law 103-322 The Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (enacted September 13, 1994) 18 U.S.C. CHAPTER 44 § 921(a)(17)(B) the term 'armor piercing ammunition' means --

(i) a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a handgun and which is constructed entirely (excluding the presence of traces of other substances) from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or depleted uranium; or

(ii) a full jacketed projectile larger than .22 caliber designed and intended for use in a handgun and whose jacket has a weight of more than 25 percent of the total weight of the projectile. ^[1]

[edit] Typical bullet construction

Bullets are designed to fulfill a number of requirements. They must provide a good seal in the bore of the firearm, maintain their energy well over the desired distance to the target, and must effectively act on the target. Lead is the most common choice, as it is soft and malleable, allowing it to swage into the barrel and obturate the bore, and it is dense enough to provide good external ballistic performance. Terminal performance is the most variable; a bullet designed for target shooting just has to punch a hole in a paper target, while bullets for hunting or self defense must rapidly incapacitate the target. Full metal jacket bullets are used by military forces to provide good penetration with minimal deformation, and are intended to minimize the damage to the target. Jacketed hollow point bullets used for hunting are designed to penetrate to a specific distance, and to provide maximum destruction of tissue to that depth, to ensure a quick kill of the target, with minimum suffering. Armor piercing bullets are designed to penetrate typical battlefield armor, and are the major exception to the lead core bullet. Most armor piercing bullets contain a core made of a hard, high density material, either steel or tungsten carbide in small arms, and depleted uranium in anti-tank guns. These bullets wrap the hardened core in a softer material, either a copper jacket or a sabot, which strip off before penetration. The hard, dense core resists deformation and concentrates its energy on a small area.

[edit] Bullet coatings

Patched bullets, Nyclad

[edit] Bullet penetration and soft body armor

Soft body armor is typically made up of layers of aramid fiber, which dissipate the force of impact over a broader area of the body, and thus limit the ability of the the impacting item to penetrate the body. In addition to protecting against bullets and other ballistic projectiles, soft body armor has been shown to increase survivability of other impacts, such as attacks by knives and clubs, improvised weapons, and even high speed automobile and motorcycle crashes.^[2][3]

The ability of the armor to stop penetration is a function of the total strength of the fibers involved, so it is vital that the impact be spread out across the armor for it to work. This is aided by the tendency of most bullets to deform upon impact, which further spreads the force of impact. Soft armor actually provides minimal protection against sharp-edged weapons, such as knives, because they sharp edge concentrates the force on a very small area, causing the fibers to fail rather than spreading the force out.^[4]

Handgun bullets designed to maximize tissue destruction, such as hollow point bullets used for hunting and self defense, are particularly soft, as they must deform at the relatively low velocities produced by most handguns. Soft body armor is designed to protect against these threats; only rigid armor, or armor made reinforced with rigid plates, is rated to stop high velocity bullets from rifles. Even these plates rely to some degree on the deformation of the bullet; only the heaviest level NIJ armor, Level IV, is specifically rated to stop bullets with a hard core.

[edit] KTW armor piercing handgun ammunition

[edit] Ref parking

• Daniel Patrick Moynihan link
• Here and here Moynihan refers to "tungsten jacketed bullets", the Black Talon, proposes a ban on all .25, .32, and 9mm handgun ammunition
• Black Rhino bullet
• Police Body Armor Standards and Testing By Office of Technology Assessment, United States, Congress
• Nyclad bullets, KTW ammunition, myth of cop killer bullets, 9mm AP used by military^[5]
• Moynihan states the only purpose of AP handgun ammo is to kill police ^[6]
• 1987 vests are I and IIA^[2]
• Lethal Weapon 3, KTW development, actual crime stats with vest penetrating injuries and "APHA" prosecutions.^[7]
• Clinton using a false "cop killer bullet" incident.^[8]
• Police body armor is mostly II and IIIA^[9]
• 1 in 6 officers KIA are shot with their own sidearm ^[10]

[edit] References