Monday Morning Jihad Watch

UPDATE:

Bob "Confederate Yankee" Owens has an excellent summary article up on PajamasMedia...now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

No, not the Ft. Hood shooter — who was apparently trying to get his Official Terrorist Membership Card — but the media jihad against the 5.7 X 28, a cartridge that Brady has always thought it had a shot at banning. Confederate Yankee has a compilation of headlines from the ballistic wizards at the MSM (who earlier in the incident identified the plastic pistol as a "sniper rifle," a "high-powered rifle," an "AK-47" and an "Uzi"), after which he notes:

Ironically, there is no known record of that weapon even being used to kill a police officer in the United States, and there is a distinct possibility that Sgt. Kimberly Munley, wounded while engaging Hasan, may have been the first American law enforcement officer ever shot with a Five-seveN.

How did the Five-seveN get it's "cop killer" reputation, then?

It was created in a Brady Campaign press release in February of 2005.

Here's the link to the 2005 Brady press release, BTW, which reads in part:

"Congress needs to protect our law enforcement officers, and the Five-Seven should not be sold to civilians," said Michael Barnes, President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence united with the Million Mom March. "It is outrageous that some members of Congress want to give special legal privileges to irresponsible gun sellers like the manufacturer of this cop-killer gun."

Tam addresses the so-called armor piercing ammo in her post this AM:

The SS190 AP loading of the 5.7x28mm cartridge, about which several in the media are prattling on as though they knew from which end of the weapon the bullet emerged, is not just "restricted", but actually illegal to import for any use but law-enforcement or the military. To the best of my knowledge, it cannot be purchased from Joe's Police Supply Co.; it sits in a customs-bonded cage at Fabrique Nationale's South Carolina facility until an order comes directly from a government agency. So that's not what was used at Fort Hood.

The 5.7 and the whole concept of "armor-piercing" is something we've talked about extensively on the blog here and even on SHOOTING GALLERY. As you all should know, I don't think any of us want a protracted discussion of what particular round will pierce what particular level of body armor. As Tam notes, the AP version of the 5.7 is not available under any conditions for non-military non-LEO purchase. The 5.7 X 28 is probably one of the most studied round in history, and ATF has certified the ammo available over the counter as non-armor-piercing.

As I've mentioned before, more than a decade ago I did a penetration demonstration at an LEO SWAT convention. In the drill we took human torso dummies filled with ballistic putty and put Level II and even a few Level IIIa vests on them. As the officers watched, I walked down the line of dummies and fired a 9mm round from a Browning High Power into the center of the vests from about 3 feet. The 9mm punched through the front panel of all the vests and actually exited out the rear panel of a few (trusting my old memory). That 9mm round, which was widely available and was sold even at big box stores, is no longer imported, but I refer you to the FAQ at BulletProofME:

To state the obvious, getting shot ALWAYS carries some risk.

Since no one at Ft. Hood was wearing amy body armor, the whole media emphasis is a huge red herring.