NRA-ILA 8/3/2018
Each year, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) publishes the Wastebook, a project developed by former Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) in 2008. The document details the most ridiculous instances of federal government largesse, such as $1.7 million for a hologram comedy club in Jamestown, N.Y., $450,000 for National Science Foundation-funded research that determined dinosaurs couldn’t sing, and $230,000 for a National Institutes of Health-funded study showing that rhesus macaques are aroused by the color red. For the 2018 edition, Flake’s staff may want to examine a recent U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance-funded study that came to the shocking conclusion that larger caliber firearms are more deadly than relatively smaller caliber firearms.
The study is titled, The Association of Firearm Caliber With Likelihood of Death From Gunshot Injury in Criminal Assaults, was published on the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open, and authored by Anthony A. Braga and Philip J. Cook. For the project, the authors examined shootings that occurred in Boston between 2010 and 2014. Shootings were coded by the characteristics of the victim, the number of bullet wounds they suffered, the location of their wounds, and whether or not the wounds were fatal.
The researchers also ordered the cases into three groups by the caliber of firearm used in the shooting. Calibers .22, .25 and .32 were categorized as “small,†.38, .380 and 9mm as “medium,†and .357 magnum, .40 S&W, .44 magnum, 10mm, and 7.62x39mm as “large.â€
The researcher found that the use of “medium†and “large†caliber guns resulted in more fatal wounds than the “small†caliber firearms. The authors wrote,
We were able to confirm the strong positive association between caliber and fatality rate and summarize the overall effect of larger calibers by simulating the effect on outcomes if all the guns had been small caliber. The result is a 39.5% reduction in the probability of death, implying an equal reduction in the gun homicide rate if the same shootings had occurred but with small-caliber weapons, rather than the actual mix of small, medium, and large calibers.
The general conclusion of this research has always been evident to anyone even remotely familiar with firearms or physics. The kinetic energy of a moving projectile is a function of its velocity and mass. A faster and heavier bullet carries more energy than a lighter and slower bullet, and can potentially impart more damage on the intended target.
This is obvious to the firearms community. Calibers and projectiles are marketed on the basis of their so-called “stopping power.†State Fish and Wildlife agencies require minimum caliber size and muzzle energy for taking certain game. Gun owners debate incessantly about the characteristics and effectiveness of different calibers. Enterprising gun enthusiasts construct elaborate tests to observe numerous calibers and projectiles under varying conditions and share the results online.
More:
https://www.nraila.org/articles/20180803/government-funded-researchers-discover-basic-ballistics
