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From: random@nwgpb.att.com (David L Pope)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Use of hollow points
Message-ID: <1991Feb19.033139.19139@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 19 Feb 91 03:31:39 GMT
References: <1991Feb18.055426.12666@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
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From: random@nwgpb.att.com (David L Pope)
> I heard recently (on another newsgroup) that the use of hollowpoint 
> small-arms ammo in war would be considered criminal.  Is this true?
> And if so, how did this come to be so?

I'll post and E-mail in case anyone else is interested.
Hollow-point ammo can be usefull in the killing of game because
it has a hollow cavity which causes the bullet to flatten &
expand as it penetrates. This causes a more severe wound, under
many circumstances. The purpose of shooting people in a war,
believe it or not, is NOT to kill them, but to wound. Killing an 
enemy soldier takes one person out of action, but wounding him
requires that further personell and material must be used to
evacuate and treat the soldier. The full-metal-jacket assault
rifle bullets are designed to punch small, largely non-lethal 
holes in people, while hollow points, silver-tips, and 'dum-dums'
are designed to rip large traumatic quick-kill wounds.

Then there are armor-piercing (used for machinery, mostly), tracer
(phosphorus-filled bullets usually used just to visualize where the
shots are going), and the much-maligned Teflon Bullet (which, according
to the manufacturer, was designed to GRIP windshield material upon
impact, allowing police to shoot onrushing cars. The developer
claims that the teflon bullet has NO armor piercing properties, but
the news media chose to ignore the facts, and shouted between commercials
about COP KILLER bullets penetrating police body armor. Most bad guys
didn't even know police were WEARING body armor.) But I digress.

	Hope this helps.
	
		Random