FBI 9MM Justification, FBI Training Division

[SlapChopDonkey]

I tried the search on the top of the page, and a google site: search and couldn't find this on here.  If I missed it, please feel free to delete/merge.

 

From www.soldiersystems.net

May 6, 2014

 

FBI Training Division: FBI Academy, Quantico, VA

 

Executive Summary of Justification for Law Enforcement Partners

 

Caliber debates have existed in law enforcement for decades

Most of what is “common knowledge” with ammunition and its effects on the human target are rooted in myth and folklore

Projectiles are what ultimately wound our adversaries and the projectile needs to be the basis for the discussion on what “caliber” is best

In all the major law enforcement calibers there exist projectiles which have a high likelihood of failing LEO’s in a shooting incident and there are projectiles which have a high ting incident likelihood of succeeding for LEO’s in a shooting incident

Handgun stopping power is simply a myth

The single most important factor in effectively wounding a human target is to have penetration to a scientifically valid depth (FBI uses 12” – 18”)

LEO’s miss between 70 – 80 percent of the shots fired during a shooting incident

Contemporary projectiles (since 2007) have dramatically increased the terminal effectiveness of many premium line law enforcement projectiles (emphasis on the 9mm Luger offerings)

9mm Luger now offers select projectiles which are, under identical testing conditions, I outperforming most of the premium line .40 S&W and .45 Auto projectiles tested by the FBI

9mm Luger offers higher magazine capacities, less recoil, lower cost (both in ammunition and wear on the weapons) and higher functional reliability rates (in FBI weapons)

The majority of FBI shooters are both FASTER in shot strings fired and more ACCURATE with shooting a 9mm Luger vs shooting a .40 S&W (similar sized weapons)

There is little to no noticeable difference in the wound tracks between premium line law Auto enforcement projectiles from 9mm Luger through the .45 Auto

Given contemporary bullet construction, LEO’s can field (with proper bullet selection) 9mm Lugers with all of the terminal performance potential of any other law enforcement pistol caliber with none of the disadvantages present with the “larger” calibers

Justification for Law Enforcement Partners

 

Rarely in law enforcement does a topic stir a more passionate debate than the choice of handgun caliber made by a law enforcement organization. Many voice their opinions by repeating the old adage “bigger is better” while others have “heard of this one time” where a smaller caliber failed and a larger caliber “would have performed much better.” Some even subscribe to the belief that a caliber exists which will provide a “one shot stop.” It has been stated, “Decisions on ammunition selection are particularly difficult because many of the pertinent issues related to handguns and ammunition are firmly rooted in myth and folklore.” This still holds as true today as it did when originally stated 20 years ago.

 

Caliber, when considered alone, brings about a unique set of factors to consider such as magazine capacity for a given weapon size, ammunition availability, felt recoil, weight and cost. What is rarely discussed, but most relevant to the caliber debate is what projectile is being considered for use and its terminal performance potential.

 

One should never debate on a gun make or caliber alone. The projectile is what wounds and ultimately this is where the debate/discussion should focus. In each of the three most common law enforcement handgun calibers (9mm Luger, .40 Smith & Wesson and .45 AUTO) there are projectiles which have a high likelihood of failing law enforcement officers and in each of these three calibers there are projectiles which have a high likelihood of succeeding for law enforcement officers during a shooting incident. The choice of a service projectile must undergo intense scrutiny and scientific evaluation in order to select the best available option.

 

Understanding Handgun Caliber Terminal Ballistic Realities

 

Many so?called “studies” have been performed and many analyses of statistical data have been undertaken regarding this issue. Studies simply involving shooting deaths are irrelevant since the goal of law enforcement is to stop a threat during a deadly force encounter as quickly as possible. Whether or not death occurs is of no consequence as long as the threat of death or serious injury to law enforcement personnel and innocent third parties is eliminated.

 

“The concept of immediate incapacitation is the only goal of any law enforcement shooting and is the underlying rationale for decisions regarding weapons, ammunition, calibers and training.”1

 

Studies of “stopping power” are irrelevant because no one has ever been able to define how much power, force, or kinetic energy, in and of itself, is required to effectively stop a violent and determined adversary quickly, and even the largest of handgun calibers are not capable of delivering such force. Handgun stopping power is simply a myth. Studies of so?called “one shot stops” being used as a tool to define the effectiveness of one handgun cartridge, as opposed to another, are irrelevant due to the inability to account for psychological influences and due to the lack of reporting specific shot placement. In short, extensive studies have been done over the years to “prove” a certain cartridge is better than another by using grossly flawed methodology and or bias as a precursor to manipulating statistics. In order to have a meaningful understanding of handgun terminal ballistics, one must only deal with facts that are not in dispute within the medical community, i.e. medical realities, and those which are also generally accepted within law enforcement, i.e. tactical realities.

 

Medical Realities

 

Shots to the Central Nervous System (CNS) at the level of the cervical spine (neck) or above, are the only means to reliably cause immediate incapacitation. In this case, any of the calibers commonly used in law enforcement, regardless of expansion, would suffice for obvious reasons. Other than shots to the CNS, the most reliable means for affecting rapid incapacitation is by placing shots to large vital organs thus causing rapid blood loss. Simply stated, shot placement is the most critical component to achieving either method of incapacitation.

 

Wounding factors between rifle and handgun projectiles differ greatly due to the dramatic differences in velocity, which will be discussed in more detail herein. The wounding factors, in order of importance, are as follows:

 

A. Penetration:

 

A projectile must penetrate deeply enough into the body to reach the large vital organs, namely heart, lungs, aorta, vena cava and to a lesser extent liver and spleen, in order to cause rapid blood loss. It has long been established by expert medical professionals, experienced in evaluating gunshot wounds, that this equates to a range of penetration of 12?18 inches, depending on the size of the individual and the angle of the bullet path (e.g., through arm, shoulder, etc.). With modern properly designed, expanding handgun bullets, this objective is realized, albeit more consistently with some law enforcement projectiles than others. 1 Handgun Wounding Factors and Effectiveness: Firearms Training Unit, Ballistic Research Facility, 1989.

 

B. Permanent Cavity:

 

The extent to which a projectile expands determines the diameter of the permanent cavity which, simply put, is that tissue which is in direct contact with the projectile and is therefore destroyed. Coupled with the distance of the path of the projectile (penetration), the total permanent cavity is realized. Due to the elastic nature of most human tissue and the low velocity of handgun projectiles relative to rifle projectiles, it has long been established by medical professionals, experienced in evaluating gunshot wounds, that the damage along a wound path visible at autopsy or during surgery cannot be distinguished between the common handgun calibers used in law enforcement. That is to say an operating room surgeon or Medical Examiner cannot distinguish the difference between wounds caused by .35 to .45 caliber projectiles.

 

C. Temporary Cavity:

 

The temporary cavity is caused by tissue being stretched away from the permanent cavity. If the temporary cavity is produced rapidly enough in elastic tissues, the tensile strength of the tissue can be exceeded resulting in tearing of the tissue. This effect is seen with very high velocity projectiles such as in rifle calibers, but is not seen with handgun calibers. For the temporary cavity of most handgun projectiles to have an effect on wounding, the velocity of the projectile needs to exceed roughly 2,000 fps. At the lower velocities of handgun rounds, the temporary cavity is not produced with sufficient velocity to have any wounding effect; therefore any difference in temporary cavity noted between handgun calibers is irrelevant. “In order to cause significant injuries to a structure, a pistol bullet must strike that structure directly.”2 2 DiMaio, V.J.M.: Gunshot Wounds, Elsevier Science Publishing Company, New York, NY, 1987, page 42.

 

D. Fragmentation:

 

Fragmentation can be defined as “projectile pieces or secondary fragments of bone which are impelled outward from the permanent cavity and may sever muscle tissues, blood vessels, etc., apart from the permanent cavity”3. Fragmentation does not reliably occur in soft tissue handgun wounds due to the low velocities of handgun bullets. When fragmentation does occur, fragments are usually found within one centimeter (.39”) of the permanent cavity.4 Due to the fact that most modern premium law enforcement ammunition now commonly uses bonded projectiles (copper jacket bonded to lead core), the likelihood of fragmentation is very low. For these reasons, wounding effects secondary to any handgun caliber bullet fragmentation are considered inconsequential. 3 Fackler, M.L., Malinowski, J.A.: “The Wound Profile: A Visual Method for Quantifying Gunshot Wound Components”, Journal of Trauma 25: 522?529, 1958. 4 Handgun Wounding Factors and Effectiveness: Firearms Training Unit, Ballistic Research Facility, 1989.

 

Psychology

 

Any discussion of stopping armed adversaries with a handgun has to include the psychological state of the adversary. Psychological factors are probably the most important relative to achieving rapid incapacitation from a gunshot wound to the torso.5 First and foremost, the psychological effects of being shot can never be counted on to stop an individual from continuing conscious voluntary action. Those who do stop commonly do so because they decide to, not because they have to. The effects of pain are often delayed due to survival patterns secondary to “fight or flight” reactions within the body, drug/alcohol influences and in the case of extreme anger or aggression, pain can simply be ignored. Those subjects who decide to stop immediately after being shot in the torso do so commonly because they know they have been shot and are afraid of injury or death, regardless of caliber, velocity, or bullet design. It should also be noted that psychological factors can be a leading cause of incapacitation failures and as such, proper shot placement, adequate penetration, and multiple shots on target cannot be over emphasized. 5 Ibid.

 

Tactical Realities

 

Shot placement is paramount and law enforcement officers on average strike an adversary with only 20 – 30 percent of the shots fired during a shooting incident. Given the reality that shot placement is paramount (and difficult to achieve given the myriad of variables present in a deadly force encounter) in obtaining effective incapacitation, the caliber used must maximize the likelihood of hitting vital organs. Typical law enforcement shootings result in only one or two solid torso hits on the adversary. This requires that any projectile which strikes the torso has as high a probability as possible of penetrating deeply enough to disrupt a vital organ.

 

The Ballistic Research Facility has conducted a test which compares similar sized Glock pistols in both .40 S&W and 9mm calibers, to determine if more accurate and faster hits are achievable with one versus the other. To date, the majority of the study participants have shot more quickly and more accurately with 9mm caliber Glock pistols. The 9mm provides struggling shooters the best chance of success while improving the speed and accuracy of the most skilled shooters.

 

CONCLUSION

 

While some law enforcement agencies have transitioned to larger calibers from the 9mm Luger in recent years, they do so at the expense of reduced magazine capacity, more felt recoil, and given adequate projectile selection, no discernible increase in terminal performance.

 

Other law enforcement organizations seem to be making the move back to 9mm Luger taking advantage of the new technologies which are being applied to 9mm Luger projectiles. These organizations are providing their armed personnel the best chance of surviving a deadly force encounter since they can expect faster and more accurate shot strings, higher magazine capacities (similar sized weapons) and all of the terminal performance which can be expected from any law enforcement caliber projectile.

 

Given the above realities and the fact that numerous ammunition manufacturers now make 9mm Luger service ammunition with outstanding premium line law enforcement projectiles, the move to 9mm Luger can now be viewed as a decided advantage for our armed law enforcement personnel.

[JAB]

Good read.  I, at least, had not seen this before.  Thanks for posting.

 

Hmmm...you know, if the F.B.I. had followed this line of thinking after the Miami shootout and focused on finding/developing a better 9mm projectile/round (and training their agents to hit what they were shooting at) rather than blaming the 9mm caliber for 'failing' that day then a whole lot of the caliber debate, as well as the very existence of the .40 S&W, could have been avoided in the first place.  I have a suspicion that developing a better performing 9mm round would probably have required less time, energy, r&d and money to be invested than coming up with a whole, new caliber (.40 S&W) that - in the end - really doesn't appear to outperform the 9mm with the aforementioned, better performing rounds.

Edited September 25, 2014 by JAB

[Spurholder]

Finally - some common sense.

[peejman]

No more caliber debates?!?!    :panic:

[Omega]

Good read.  I, at least, had not seen this before.  Thanks for posting.

 

Hmmm...you know, if the F.B.I. had followed this line of thinking after the Miami shootout and focused on finding/developing a better 9mm projectile/round (and training their agents to hit what they were shooting at) rather than blaming the 9mm caliber for 'failing' that day then a whole lot of the caliber debate, as well as the very existence of the .40 S&W, could have been avoided in the first place.  I have a suspicion that developing a better performing 9mm round would probably have required less time, energy, r&d and money to be invested than coming up with a whole, new caliber (.40 S&W) that - in the end - really doesn't appear to outperform the 9mm with the aforementioned, better performing rounds.

I have actually seen reports like this for the past few years, with ballistic gel comparisons and everything.  I for one like my .40 and am glad it was developed but have no dilutions that I am carrying any magic bullets.  I try and shoot 9mm, .40, and .45 when I can to make sure I can hit the target.  Heck I even shoot my .22 target pistol as much as I can.  Modern ammunition has leveled the field when it come to handguns, and it falls back to what ever you are more proficient in and what can be comfortably carry.  I am highly proficient in .45 but don't like carrying my 1911 so I go with my .40s since they are compact enough.  If I get a compact .45 in the future that I can carry, I'll add it to the rotation. 

[dcloudy777]

While some law enforcement agencies have transitioned to larger calibers from the 9mm Luger in recent years, they do so at the expense of reduced magazine capacity, more felt recoil, and given adequate projectile selection, no discernible increase in terminal performance.

 

That's it right there.  Boom.  Headshot.

 

How in the world was such distilled sanity and common sense produced by an agency of the federal government?

[three5seven]

This was a good read and thanks for posting. I wonder if this means that the FBI will transition to the Glock 19/17/34 varieties and that all of the other Federal agencies will slowly begin to follow suit.  

[Jonnin]

Good read.

 

Its not that stopping power is a myth.  Its just that handguns don't have it.   There are guns that WILL stop someone cold.  Most can't be hand-held nor fired by sane mortals --- the force to knock down the victim is the same force of the recoil..........  maybe the rifle they pranked those guys with in that video, the t-rex or whatever it was...?

 

There are handguns rounds that can break 2k fps.   Whether the wound created by such is worthy of going to such calibers is another question.  The FN can do it, and light bullets in magnums can get really close to that and break it in the really long barrel hunting revolvers.   I suspect if the results of a 2k+ projectile were WORTH pursuing one could MAKE a round that would do it and beef up a gun to take the extra pressure.  But it would be either a micro caliber (true caliber, that is, diameter) or a very brutal recoil.   I would think that given how much we know about physics, that if there were a good enough reason to do this, we could do it.   I mean if you just neck down a 44 mag or similar big round with say a 50 grain bullet, you could make it move right along, its not rocket science to do that.

 

All in all, though, pretty good summary of the issues.  

[mikegideon]

Good read.  I, at least, had not seen this before.  Thanks for posting.

 

Hmmm...you know, if the F.B.I. had followed this line of thinking after the Miami shootout and focused on finding/developing a better 9mm projectile/round (and training their agents to hit what they were shooting at) rather than blaming the 9mm caliber for 'failing' that day then a whole lot of the caliber debate, as well as the very existence of the .40 S&W, could have been avoided in the first place.  I have a suspicion that developing a better performing 9mm round would probably have required less time, energy, r&d and money to be invested than coming up with a whole, new caliber (.40 S&W) that - in the end - really doesn't appear to outperform the 9mm with the aforementioned, better performing rounds.

 

If the FBI hadn't blamed their guns after the Miami shootout, they would have gone down a smarter path. Don't bring a pistol to a rifle fight.

[E4 No More]

This validates the need for high capacity magazines.

[Smith]

So, I was right all along Mr. Rightwinger! =-O

[mikegideon]

So, I was right all along Mr. Rightwinger! =-O

 

If you believe the guys that blamed their guns for the outcome of the Miami shootout. It was the guns... no wait... it wasn't the guns :)

[dunndw]

I am a DIEHARD 1911 fan. I find them easy to carry, I shoot them well and I think they are the best looking handgun out there. Something gentlemanly about a quality 1911 that just speaks to me. I run them better than pretty much any other platform out there. I can reload one in under 3 seconds (on a timer) from concealment...blah blah...

 

All that being said, after the recent Ferguson dustup, the fact that more crimes are being committed by groups of people, possible threats of retaliatory strikes against soft targets from the JV ISIS team the 1911 is in the safe and the G19 is on my hip in it's new Incog holster  loaded with quality HPs with two spare mags. Sometimes quanity IS better than quality :-)

[mikegideon]

Yep. All joking aside, it's probably time to dust off the G19, and give the 23 some safe time.

[Erik88]

Yep. All joking aside, it's probably time to dust off the G19, and give the 23 some safe time.

 

There is a reason why my G23 has only been shot once in the past year.

[mikegideon]

There is a reason why my G23 has only been shot once in the past year.

 

Because you have only been shooting girlie men, or because you're a girlie man? :)

 

BTW... may be time to get a .357 SIG barrel for my 23.

Edited September 25, 2014 by mikegideon

[Patton]

This was a good read and thanks for posting. I wonder if this means that the FBI will transition to the Glock 19/17/34 varieties and that all of the other Federal agencies will slowly begin to follow suit.

For several years FBI agents have been able to purchase through the agency a G19 or 26 for carry. Most do not bother and carry an issued 22 or 23. The G21 is popular for their purchase and the only .45 Glock authorized. The last word that I heard was that the G22 is the ONLY gun being issued and no private purchases are allowed because of shortages with personal in the training division. I believe that there is about as much misconception about the FBI's weapons as there is about the agency in general. The FBI never used the 40s&w until the later part of 1997. Agents fought to get Glocks in .40 or .45 to replace the 9mm Sigs. The few FBI agents I could get to talk about it over the years like their .40's.

I doubt that other federal agencies will even consider the 9mm. Marshals and Border Patrol probably shoot more people in a year with their .40's than the FBI has shot in 40 years; they love their .40's. I have a friend in ICE and a friend in the FAM service that s their is strong pressure to make DHS .40 across the board. The SS is within the Department of Justice and so is the FBI so they will do their own things. Edited September 25, 2014 by Patton

[Lumber_Jack]

My 10mm is still better though, right?!?!?

[Patton]

My 10mm is still better though, right?!?!?

A bigger, heavier bullet that travels faster will always perform better.

[mikegideon]

A bigger, heavier bullet that travels faster will always perform better.

 

You obviously didn't read the FBI report  :rofl:

[nightrunner]

Sounds about right coming from the Federal Bureau of Incompetence.

[Bassoneer]

I've gone through all the various calibers, did testing, and about went broke trying various guns and have read most of the reports that this article refers to.  I had settled on 9mm, Glock 19, Speer GD 124+P...thanks for the article - it made me glad I came to that conclusion.  B

[DaveTN]

Where did this “document” come from? It doesn’t read like an FBI document, has misspellings and is full of

It reads like it was written by someone that desperately wants people to believe his 9mm is as good a weapon as their .40S&W’s.
Sorry, dude you still have a 9mm; but maybe you can find someone to give you a hug.

You guys know don’t you that you don’t need the approval of everyone else; the only people that matter are you and those you are protecting.

[E4 No More]

According to the logic expressed in this document the .22 would be better because you can have even more rounds in your magazine if you went rimless.

 

When it comes to the caliber wars my belief is: Who gives a $#&^ what someone else carries? It's their choice; not mine.

[runco]

Placeholder for me to come back to this post!