Myth: Hollow Point Bullets are Overkill

I was in Atlantic City, NJ for business when there was a shooting in an adjacent hotel on the strip. In the news reports that followed, it was reported that the assailant "used illegal hollow-point ammunition" in the shooting. I thought that they must have assumed hollow points are illegal and reported incorrectly (like that never happens?!), so I looked it up. To my surprise I discovered that hollow point ammo is in fact illegal in New Jersey!

Hollow point ammunition is engineered to be more lethal than standard Ball ammo or Full Metal Jacket (FMJ) rounds. They are designed to expand upon entering the body in order to disrupt more tissue as it travels through it. Because of this "extra" lethality, anti-gun people think that shooting someone with hollow point ammunition is "overkill" and that the ammo should be illegal. In the great state of New Jersey it IS illegal to possess hollow-point ammunition for this exact reasoning. The legislature decided that banning hollow point ammo would make the state more safe. However, this is another example of how many things about firearms are counter-intuitive for anti-gun thinkers who then over-react with legislation before they understand all of the facts.

Every gun owner who carries a firearm for self defense will tell you that it is irresponsible to carry any ammo other than hollow points! Why? Because hollow point bullets prevent "Over Penetration". Regular ball or FMJ ammo does NOT expand and deform as it passes through the body, therefore it is inefficient at transferring its kinetic energy into the body. The result is that the regular bullet maintains enough energy to pass completely through the body. Once the bullet leaves the body it is free to hit another person; either directly or by ricochet! This is called "Over Penetration". By contrast, the fact that the hollow point bullet expands means that it transfers its energy very efficiently into the body; not only to damage more tissue, but also to come to a STOP inside the body to prevent harm to others not intended for the bullet. Even in the event that a hollow point does pass through the bad guy, its velocity will usually be decreased so much that it will no longer be lethal to any innocent person it might hit. So, hollow point bullets may be more deadly to the intended target, but they are safer for bystanders. In fact, this is why most police departments REQUIRE their officers to carry hollow point ammo in their guns!

The goal in shooting a person in self defense is to stop the attack, not kill the attacker. But, since hollow point bullets prevent over-penetration, they should always be carried in a self defense firearm. Preventing over-penetration makes self-defense guns safer. Laws restricting hollow point ammo are irresponsible and put the community at unnecessary risk.