CBS News’ 60 Minutes did a report on the AR-15 rifle Sunday night and discovered that the rifle is more powerful than a handgun.
They specifically contrasted an AR-15 rifle with a 9mm handgun, and spent time talking about the different levels of penetration and tissue damage caused by a round from each.
Host Scott Pelley interviewed University of Southern California researcher Cynthia Bir who explained videoing a “9 millimeter bullet from a handgun…in slow motion.” She talked of shooting ballistic gel with the 9mm, saying, “The handgun bullet traveled about 800 miles an hour…[and] sliced nearly straight all the way through the gel.”
She then described the round fired from an AR-15 rifle, saying, “[It traveled] three times faster and struck with more than twice the force. The shockwave of the AR-15 bullet blasted a large cavity in the gel unlike the bullet from the handgun.”
Pelley was impressed. He said, “Wow. There’s an enormous difference. You can see it right away.”
In other parts of the segment Pelley worked to communicate the force of the AR-15 rifle by referencing its “high velocity ammo.”
Pelley and Bir could have gotten an even greater difference in power by comparing an AR-15 rifle to a smaller handgun, like a .380, a .32, or a .25. Conversely, they could have contrasted an AR-15 rifle with a popular hunting rifle like the 45-70 to show how the force of an AR-15 pales in comparison to that of other rifles.
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