Lies, damned lies, and politically motivated bullshit

[unixronin]

It is reported that Richard Brown, District Attorney for the Borough of Queens, New York City, has stated on the public record that 425 of the 616 police officers killed in the line of duty in the United States between 1994 and 2003 were killed with an FN Five seveN pistol, which he breathlessly informs us all is a deadly, armor-piercing, cop-killing pistol¹ that can defeat body armor.

This is an impressive feat for a pistol that only entered manufacture in 2000.  DA Brown's assertion that its armor-piercing capabilities have wreaked two thirds² of the death and mayhem among police officers during that ten-year period is even more remarkable in view of the facts that (1) the armor-piercing round fired by the Five seveN (and by its companion weapon the P90) is not imported into the US, and would be illegal for civilian purchase if it was; and (2) since the NRA helped draft a law back in the 1960s restricting armor-piercing handgun ammunition to law-enforcement use only, no police officer has ever been killed by an armor-piercing handgun round that penetrated his bulletproof vest.

Fortunately, we have a source of actual numbers to look at, right here at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.  Looking at this table of LEO deaths in the line of duty broken down by year and cause, we see that to start with, DA Brown's raw numbers are completely wrong.  He says 616 LEOs died in the line of duty from 1994 to 2003.  However, we can see from this table that between 1996 and 2003, 1319 officers died in the line of duty.  We can conclude that 703 officers rose from the dead in 1994 and 1995 (years for which this table does not include numbers); we can conclude that Brown meant to say "in New York City" and the City of New York, even with its strict gun laws, is nevertheless so violent that NYC accounts for half of all the law enforcement fatalities in the United States; or we can conclude that DA Brown didn't bother to check his facts before he opened his mouth.  You make the call.

Let's add in the datum that the Five seveN only entered manufacture in 2000.  Oops.  (In fact, it only appeared on the civilian market in 2004, sans its armor-piercing ammunition.  Oops again.  We'll give DA Brown the benefit of the doubt for now and ignore that minor technicality.)  So, it's only even POSSIBLE for the Five seveN to be involved in the LEO deaths since 2000.  Referring back to our handy table, we find that between 2000 and 2003, 234 officers in the US died in the line of duty from gunshot wounds.

Of those 234 officers, Brown asserts 425 were killed with the Five seveN.  That's, let me see here ... 425 out of 234 ... carry the one ... that's 181.6% of them.  Oops number three.

In short, DA Brown is shamelessly lying through his teeth to play for the media, pulling completely fabricated numbers out of the air for the microphone.  Someone in a position to do so should publicly call him on it.

One final point:  It is worth noting that during the period covered by this table, seventy-two law enforcement officers died in the US as a result of terrorist actions.  All 72 died in 2001.  Further comment should not be necessary.

[1]  In our general experience, it is the ammunition which posesses the armor-piercing capability, not the weapon.  Anyone capable of throwing a Five seveN pistol (or any other firearm, for that matter) with sufficient force to penetrate body armor, really doesn't need to carry a gun at all.  A pocket full of golf balls will serve him more than adequately, and golf balls are legal to carry -- openly or concealed -- anywhere.  You don't even need a permit.

[2]  Actually, if we refer to our data table, "shot" accounts for 472 deaths in the line of duty from 1996 to 2003, while "auto accident", "motorcycle accident" and "struck by vehicle" -- the total of vehicle-related fatalities, in other words -- add up to 460.  In other words, gunshot wounds and vehicle-related injuries are running neck and neck.  A little more examination reveals that each accounts for about a third of the total.  This near-equality of gunshot and vehicle-related deaths among law enforcement officers shouldn't come as a big surprise, because it closely mirrors the ratio in the general population (although LEOs have a slightly higher relative risk of dying from gunshot wounds).

Comments

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I really wouldn't have any interest whatsoever in the Five-seveN if the establishment weren't being such fuckwits about it.

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Truth to tell, me neither. If I'm going to engage at pistol ranges, I want something that hits hard and knocks down. Not that I wouldn't mind that 5.7x28 round, but I'd rather shoot it out of a P90. And if I'm going to be restricted to semi-auto only, then in that size range I'd prefer an F2000.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

*nod*

And if there wasn't a possibility that some hysterical bint was going to try to get the damned thing banned for civilian ownership, there's no way I'd consider spending $900 on one. But there is, so I am. :)

I mean, I'm a 10mm afficionado. The 5.7 really isn't my sort of round. :)

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

And if there wasn't a possibility that some hysterical bint was going to try to get the damned thing banned for civilian ownership, there's no way I'd consider spending $900 on one. But there is, so I am. :)

Considering, or spending? :)

I'd like to spend some of my back disability on a Steyr M40, if I can find a place to try one out first and see that I like it. But we have higher priorities right now.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Considering. And not all that seriously. I really have better things to spend firearms budget on.

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Though I have to admit, I would really like a P90. A select-fire one with the correct 10.5" barrel, not a PS90. I even know where there's one available, if I had $1500 to spare.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Impossible. The NFA provisions in the 1986 crime bill make it impossible for there to be a civilian registry select fire weapon of that vintage. The only way you could possibly own one legally would be if you were an SOT or a Class III manufacturer. And even then it would have to be "for demonstration purposes".

Unless you mean you know of an illegal one, in which case I'd expect you to not be talking about it on LJ. So I'm counting that possibility out.

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

NFA status is a question, indeed. The seller does not state law enforcement sales only, but it's possible that is the case.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

It seems extraordinarily likely. Part of the reason NFA wepons are so expensive these days is because there is a limited number of them on the civilian registry, and there can't be any more. Any weapon not registered as of 1986 cannot be added, no matter how much tax or fee you might be willing to pay. Thanks, BATFuckers.

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

yeah, I'd temporarily forgotten the "No new Class III Regiatrations" detail ....

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

It is no worse that Ray Nagin's declaration that 12,000 people were killed by Katrina in NO. That was international. It just comes from only idiots running for office. They believe what they are told. Not really sure if they know how to check facts for themselves. This guy does have a JD. I hope he has good paralegals!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

That may be so, but it doesn't excuse either.