An Evaluation of Police Handgun Ammunition

Book excerpt: In 1973, the National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration approved and funded a project, submitted by the Law Enforcement Standards Laboratory (LESL), National Bureau of Standards, to conduct a study of the terminal effects of police handgun ammunition. LESL contracted with the U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratories, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, September, 1973, to conduct this study, to prepare a report of their findings and to draft guidelines for the selection of law enforcement service handgun ammunition. The full report entitled, "An Evaluation of Handgun Ammunition," is forthcoming as a publication of the National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice. The full report will contain a complete description of a model for human incapacitation by handgun bullets, comparisons of presently available factory-loaded handgun cartridges according to their potential to incapacitate humans, to penetrate common materials, and to pose a hazard to bystanders. It will also contain lengthy tables of experimental data which are not included in this summary report.