Fretting about the FN 5.7 reportedly used by the Ft. Hood killer, because gun control advocates call it a ‘cop killer’.
Despite the hand wringing over the ability of armor piercing ammo, to, um, pierce armor, it doesn’t seem likely that any of the victims were wearing armor at the time of the incident. So that hand wringing, like so much of it in the press, is pointless.
For what it’s worth, this gun seems like a curious selection for someone who was planning to do this. Did things go differently than he planned? Had he originally planned to do something different?
Anyway, while some worry about the dangerous model of gun he used, the rest of us will know it’s the man who is the problem, not the tool. After all, it wasn’t the ‘cop killer’ gun that made him shoot the wounded again.
UPDATE: Confederate Yankee notes that Sgt. Kimberly Munley, who was wounded while fighting Hasan, might be the first law enforcement agent ever hit by this ‘cop killer’ gun.
UPDATE 2: Wow. This ‘cop killer’ thing is getting more attention than I would have thought, given that it has no basis in reality. Should have known better.
Anyway, the ‘cop killer’ aspect, even as portrayed by the antis, only comes into play if armor piercing ammo is used. I don’t know for sure, but I haven’t seen any reports indicating that Hasan actually used AP ammo, which isn’t available through normal civilian outlets. Hasan is, of course, military, but that doesn’t mean he had access to the military and LE only armor piercing ammo. Remember that his gun was a civilian purchase.
For what it’s worth, not only is the Five-seveN an odd choice for this sort of thing, but it would probably would be LESS lethal with AP ammo against unarmored targets.