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New Tech Puts the Brakes On Bullets Fired From Police Sidearms
Zothecula writes: Police officers are trained to shoot for the center of mass, not necessarily to kill, but to stop – although the end result can often be one and the same. "The Alternative" is designed to give officers a less lethal option in the form of a clip-on "air bag" for semiautomatic pistols that reduces the velocity of a standard round to make it less lethal. At the front of the bright orange carrier is a hollow sphere made of a proprietary alloy that catches the bullet and firmly embeds it as it leaves the barrel. The ball and bullet fuse, slowing the round by 80 percent. At this speed, the ball-encased round is less likely to penetrate flesh, but it will transfer enough kinetic energy across a wide surface to knock a suspect down with less chance of a lethal outcome.
> it will transfer enough kinetic energy across a wide surface to knock a suspect down with less chance of a lethal outcome.
Does the recoil of a pistol knock th shooter down? No. Newton's third law tells us that the kinetic energy of the projectile is equal to the kinetic energy energy of the recoil. So the claim made in the summary is utter BS.
It IS enough kinetic energy to get your attention, however.
If they're brandishing they're not a good guy. Brandishing means to draw and display to give the impression of intent to use.
If you have fired a pistol, you know that the "kick" of the gun is not even close to what would be required to knock you down. And of course people are shot in the chest all the time without being knocked down. But in the case described in the article, the bullet has even less kinetic energy because it has been intentionally slowed down by the plastic cap. If it has slowed by 80% as stated, there is no chance that the bullet could knock someone down.
"He took a duck in the face at 250 knots." -- William Gibson, Pattern Recognition
A 115 grain (7.5 gram) 9mm bullet from a Glock G17 has around 370 m/sec of velocity. Take that down to 75 m/sec and you're around 21J of energy. That's about the energy you'll receive from a punch by an 8 year old boy. If that knocks you over, the police probably could have caught you just by a brisk walk as you were trying to escape on your walker.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
The bullet is slowed because the mass of the projectile just increased - the amount of kinetic energy delivered is probably about the same.
Not that this means that the target is going to always be 'knocked down' by one, but if you were unprepared or already somewhat off-balance (you're running, for instance), then there's a good chance you'll end up on the ground.