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http://articles.cnn.com/2010-11-26/ente ... PM:SHOWBIZ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

From the article:

Hollow-point bullets are controversial because the slug is designed to expand after it enters a body, causing greater damage to tissue than a solid bullet.

Hadn't heard this stuff for awhile, hope it's not a sign of a broader trend

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This is a continuing cycle. I seem to recall an uproar over Hollow Points in the 80s and the 90s by the Brady bunch and the likes. Trying to explain that instead of shooting two people you might want to shoot only your target makes little to no difference to them...

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macavity wrote:I don't know too much about bullets. Do they make bullets with flat tips? How effective are they compared to Hollow Points at stopping on impact? Cost difference? Thanks.

That is why HP rounds expand, so they are less likely to go through the target and hit someone else.

macavity wrote:I don't know too much about bullets. Do they make bullets with flat tips? How effective are they compared to Hollow Points at stopping on impact? Cost difference? Thanks.

The short version is hollowpoint bullets:

1. Are designed to expand to some degree (up to about 100%, but most often considerably less than that) on impact.
2. Cause a wider wound channel that facilitates blood loss and incapacitation in an adversary
3. Greatly reduce the chances of overpenetration and subsequent impact on unintended targets behind the adversary.
4. Tend to break up when striking a hard surface instead of ricocheting off like a ping pong ball and creating additional hazards
5. Are harder to manufacture and thus somewhat more expensive than solid tip bullets
6. Are the primary type of handgun ammunition issued by virtually all US law enforcement agencies at the local, state, and federal level.

A recent news story on the apparent execution of show biz publicist Ronni Chasen on Sunset Blvd. in CA spoke of "9mm hollowpoints which are banned in some states." While technically true (civilians can't carry a gun loaded with hollowpoints in NJ, thus requiring CHL's there to use ammunition the use of which would be likely considered negligent for self defense elsewhere), the impression that these are illegal superbullets of some kind is nothing but sensationalism on the part of those whose intent is to mislead rather than inform.

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The guy in New Jersey who was sentenced to seven years in prison for transporting two legally owned unloaded handguns in a locked box in his locked trunk with the ammuntion in a separate location was carrying hollow point ammunition and magazines which were probably normal to us.

The anti gun groups applauded his convictions because the hollow point ammunition and high capacity magazines were illegal in New Jersey in all cases.

So what we would consider to be normal (well except for the guns being unloaded and being in a locked box and locked trunk) and totally legal in Texas to anyone, is a seven year sentence in New Jersey.

So the hollow point ammunition is considered by anti gun groups to be more "something" than full metal jacket bullets.

If the killer had used 12ga 00 Buck.....would that have been "controversial?"

Its not just the media.
The wife and I were watching an episode of COPS (dont know what year) and this officer from Georgia is losing his mind over someone with hollow points. He's going on a tirade about how all hollowpoints are illegal and for LEO us only, etc etc.

Of course we use HP's for greater expansion and damage but it could just as easily be spun as "they are safer as they will stop inside the body and not continue on to hit innocent bystanders."

Who is going to argue that point?

Not only hollow points, but I have it on good authority that guns themselves were made to hurt people or even kill!

AndyC wrote:Controversial only to the completely pig-ignorant, IMO

I don't use hollow points. The manufacturer kindly fills in the hollow with the plastic stuff. So, no, they're not hollow anymore.

macavity wrote:I don't know too much about bullets. Do they make bullets with flat tips?

The most common flat tipped bullet may be the semi-wadcutter, the most famous version of which is the "Keith" type. (There's also the full wadcutter bullet - a few people think they're ideal for self defense.)

A couple of decades ago there was a lot of ink devoted to the Hatcher Formula, the Cooper Short Form, and other formulas based on bullet weight, diameter, shape, velocity, construction, and material which purported to quantify the difference in stopping power between different bullets. At that time, it was assumed that a semi-wadcutter bullet produced stopping power about 25% greater than a round nose bullet, and bullets with a flat point somewhere between SWC and RN produced stopping power somewhere in between, depending on the size of the flat point. But as good hollowpoints began to come onto the market, these debates just sort of faded away.

And when people started trying to submit the various formulas to more rigorous scrutiny, and challenged the assumptions, interest in them just sort of faded away . . . just like the old timers who staunchly defended them.