Opinion
Trenton, NJ –-(Ammoland.com)- For more than thirty years NJ firearms law has all but banned citizen use, ownership or possession of hollow point type ammunition, but with the obligatory exemption for military and police.
It is true that citizens can in fact buy, and use hollow points under extremely limited and exceptionally narrowly tailored circumstances, but even most cops aren’t aware of them.
Ask nearly any anti-gun politician or spokesperson for an anti-gun group and the inevitable answer justifying the law is predicated on utter ignorance and unsupportable rhetoric. Opponents will invariably exclaim that hollow point bullets are “extra lethal” and “they are designed solely to cause devastating wounds, inflicting un-necessary pain and trauma” and they “pose a grave threat” or other variations of the meme.
Yet there’s that pesky exemption for the military and police?
The only conclusion one can reach is that the Legislature approves of and supports the issuance and potential use of these “extra lethal” rounds of ammunition by police officers in the performance of their duties, essentially suggesting and overtly approving that it’s perfectly acceptable for an alleged criminal to be shot by a police officer with them if the situation calls for it.
This means, it is the stated policy of the NJ Legislature that a person engaged in a criminal act, but not having yet had a trial or having been convicted of such an act in a court of law, can suffer “unnecessary pain and trauma” and suffer “devastating wounds” if an officer decides to shoot the suspect for whatever reason.
Now, let’s shed the harsh light of scientific facts on the issue.
A hollow point bullet is not designed “solely to cause devastating wounds” its design and construction is engineered to have the bullet expand on impact with a surface, any surface; including concrete, steel, wood, fabric and yes, flesh. By expanding on impact, the surface area of the bullet increases and causes the kinetic energy stored in the bullet to be dispersed over a greater surface area, that’s it!
Remember I mentioned fabric amongst the list of surfaces that will cause a hollow point to expand when it impacts? What are police issue Kevlar bullet resistant vests made from? That’s right, fabric. In fact, when police issue body armor is tested by both the manufacturer and the government agency responsible for certifying its effectiveness, it’s tested against hollow point bullets!
Police body armor is actually much more likely to be more effective at stopping a hollow point bullet then a “full metal jacket“ type of bullet, which is the height of irony. Because of the Legislature’s incredible ignorance of the subject and their apparent willingness to swallow the baseless lies and fear mongering of anti-gunners..
..they’ve unintentionally created a more potentially deadly situation for those they claim to be trying to protect, police and innocent citizens.
I have in my custody an Internal Ballistics Test Report from the NJ State Police that conclusively proves that the use of full metal jacket ammunition in a defensive shooting situation is exponentially riskier in terms of the likelihood of over penetration and or “target pass through” with the significant potential to injure innocent people well outside the area of the shooting.
A study performed by the NYPD found the same thing and validated the findings of the NJ State Police, that the use of full metal jacket style ammunition was much more likely to result in the unintended injury of innocent bystanders due to the ability of the round to strike its intended target, generally retain its shape and energy, pass through the target and continue on its path to strike something else.
As opposed to a hollow point bullet whose design ensures that upon impact it expands and deposits its energy in its original target, thereby becoming significantly less likely to hurt or kill an innocent bystander.
The New Jersey Legislature cannot have it both ways.
They can either admit that if they truly believe that hollow point style ammunition actually is “extra lethal” and all the other assorted, overheated adjectives they use to describe them, and their approved use against criminals then certainly seems like a clear cut case of “extra judicious” force.
Or they can simply admit they made a mistake, take responsibility for it and fix it by treating hollow point ammunition just like any other bullet.
About Dan Roberts
More articles, commentary and information by D. Robert available at ThatEveryManBeArmed.com
