KellyW .. This is the most common rifle ammunition. Just because someone has made a handgun that can use this round doesn’t change the fact that it is primarily rifle ammo... This kind of rule making.. drives gun owners who might be open to reasonable restrictions on firearms deeper into the arms of the NRA..
I can't buy into your reasoning Kelly; NRA membership hasn't changed that dramatically, from a couple millions in 70's to allegedly 5 million today, out of around 90 million gun owners; and most all gun owners who 'dives deeper into the arms of the nra' wasn't about to accept reasonable gun restrictions in the first place, and probably just got a raise in salary so as to afford it.
The problem with the AR15 rifle bullet - the 0.223 - being able to be fired from a handgun is not just simple pie, as being popular. A 0.223 FMJ (full metal jacketed bullet) is essentially a deceiving 22 caliber but with lotsa gunpowder & thus lots of kinetic energy on impact. An armor piercing 0.223 green tip up close - as handguns can be sneaked in closer where a rifle cannot be - well if the bullet hits an unprotected soft target area it's generally either a death sentence or an amputation.
Am also discussing this on rkba. I'm hypothetically talking of a handgun shooter shooting 0.223 bullets, while bracing his handgun against a wall or something, holding it steady while rapid firing into one spot on a police officers bullet vest, to penetrate the vest:
Concerns over a handgun being able to shoot 0.223 bullets, bullets which were designed for m16 (semi as well as automatic) and AR15 semi-auto assault rifles:
.... true, handgun muzzle velocity is less {than AR15 rifle} & kinetic energy about 65% of one coming off an AR15, but with precision impacts several handgun .223s could still pierce the bpv;
.. additional fear is that with a handgun an undetected shooter can get much closer to police (& all soft targets), thus compensating somewhat for the less energy on impact from the AR15.
It seems that up close, repeated braced pistol .223s would be more accurate than repeated braced .223s from an AR15 fired from a distance, due external ballistics from distance (or could be).
The interval between braced rapid fire handgun bullet hits could be what, a fifth of a second to a half second? momentum transfer from one or two 55 grainers usually isn't enough to push a man off, mainly his own reflex reaction, so dunno about much change in a stationary, perhaps sitting, target, after a second or two.
And up close, shooter's aim is better &, as with all pistols, makes for a better shot for unprotected parts; solid hitting an unprotected part up close with a .223 is generally either a delayed death sentence or an amputation.
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