Expand Violently on Impact Dumdum Slugs Used By Some Area Police

ByPhiwnshirm L,ptstR: A. N: oZstas IV Police in Prince George's, endangering Montgomery and Fairfax innocent by- counties, joining a growing slanders. national trend, are carrying The U.S. armed services flat-nosed that many do not use expanding bullets authorities call "dumdums" because a 1907 Hague con- because they expand vio- vention, to which the U.S. is lently inside human or ani- a party, outlawed bullets mal targets they hit. "calculated to cause unnec- These flat or hollow- essary suffering," according tipped bullets differ from to the U.S. State Depart- the round-tipped .38-caliber ment Office of Treaty Af- slugs that have been the fairs. standard police In Rachel Hurley, a foreign the U.S: since the beginning affairs officer there, said of the century. The "dum- the unnecessary suffering dums" rip wider wound clause "has been interpreted channels through flesh, to include . .. dumdum bul- sometimes shattering into lets." many pieces and tending to Instead the tips of U.S. stop inside bodies rather military bullets are pointed than going through cleanly, rounded and the softlead is according to weapons ex- covered by a hard metal perts. jacket that tends to keep The suburban Washington the bullets intact when it police who use them say hits a target. they like their increased Lt. Charles Federline of , greater the Montgomery County po- penetration of car doors and lice department said, "There other shields used by crimi- was an alarming increase of nals and their tendency not people who were shot with to riccochet off pavement, See BULLETS, A10, Col. 1 - flat-tipped dumdum tor BULLETS, From Al three ears and the depart- those things (thy old stand- ment's officers are enthu- ard police slugs), continuing siastic about it. their assaults on people." "Basically we were look- ing at the ricochet effect," . Montgomery switched to said Deputy Chief John siumdunis with hollowed tips Rhoads. He said he knew of in 1966, said Federline- one instance of a 'municipal . though he did not use the policeman in the county— term dumdum, which police not a member of his county and others tend to shy away force—shooting at a crimi- from as an emotionally nal only to have the old loaded word. round-nosed miss, ri- Dumdum is popularly ap- cochet and hit a nearby plied to any bullet that ex- woman. pands or "mushrooms" in- Rhoads also said the dum- side its target rather than dums were reputed to have tending to remain a small, greater stopping power and President.' 'intact of lead, accord- while there had been no At that tmie, he estimated ing to David Petzal, a fire- problems in the county with 'arms expert and the manag- that 300 police departments wounded criminals continu- across the nation had ing editor of Field and ing to charge and fight— Stream magazine. moved to hollowpoint dum- there might be. Although dum bullets. William Van- The word originally de- the dumdums cost more, derpool, a firearms consul- rives from a town near Cal- Prince George's decided to tant to the International As- cutta, India, where flat- use them. sociation of Chiefs of Police tipped or notched cartridges "It's like a varmint load," (TACP) estimated last week first were made in the last said the department's armo- that about 900 police depart- century, and became noto- rer, Sgt. Carlisle Peterson, ments now use dumdums. rious for the gaping wounds of the bullet. "It's a bullet But not all policemen are they caused. that goes fast—when it goes enthusiastic about dum- Montgomery County po- there it totally destroys the dums. Police in Arlington lice switched to a new brand animals." and Alexandria as well as of hollow-point two weeks There have been no com- Maryland and Virginia state ago for greater accuracy, ac- plaints about the bullet in police, continue to use the cording to Federline. the county, according to Jo- old bullets. As elsewhere in the Wash- seph M. Parker, chairman of So does Washington's po- ington area, there has been lice force—a force that has little controversy in Mont- been in the national spot- gomery over the dumdums. light since the Nixon admin- "Our guidelines are such the county human relations istration declared a war on that when an officer pulls commission. crime and began increasing his gun, he's shooting to Fairfax County police offi- the number of police here. kill," said Federline. "So it's cials cited similar reasons "The citizens themselves, pretty irrelevant how bad for switching to flat tipped anything with a hollow the wound is." dumdums, a move they point, they call it a dum- made about a year ago. The dum," said Det. Sgt. George Like other police in this R. Wilson, a ballistics expert area who use dumdums, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Park Police and the Execu- on the Washington force. Federline said the Montgom- "We would go to nothing ery police simply don't do tive Protective Service use with a hollow point, just be- enough shooting to actually hollow-point dumdums. Dep- cause of the reaction." know whether the bullets uty Treasury Secretary Eu- Wilson, no relation to have been useful or not. gene T. Rossides defended Chief Jerry V. Wilson, said There is one known case the use of these bullets the department wants to in Montgomery of a person early in 1970 in a letter to a maintain a "low profile" and being wounded by one of person who had complain the new police bullets—a po- about the type of wounds liceman himself. In June, they cause. patrolman John J. Louthan "All , domes- was shot in the hip with a tic or imported, which is .38-caliber, high velocity, used for taking game is of hollow-point dumdum. The the vari- bullet "shattered his hip ety," he wrote. "This is so socket and fragments (of the for humanitarian reasons" bullet) lodged in the base of because "BO per cent of the his spine," Federline re- time" an animal hit with a counted. the shot was fired nonexpanding bullet "would by another policeman who be capable of fleeing out of was engaged in "horseplay," effective tracking range." Federline said. Citing the "immediate" Louthan spent a number stopping power of dum- of weeks in the hospital and dums, Rossides wrote, "De- now has returned 'to limited nying the use of the supe- duty. rior ammunition to the Se- Prince George's has used a cret Service would lessen the protection aortic(' the ... B7 Ken Fell—The WashInstan Past Comparison of police ballets, from left; city bullets used in New York City; flat- standard .38 long used by most depart• tipped hollow•point, Montgomery County; ments; the "semi-,"' a low-velo- flat-tipped .38, Prince George's.

that any move to dtundums Officials would not re- would not help. lease the detailed report, Detective Wilson con- but Wilson said the results ducted ballistics tests on dif- were standard: the dum- ferent types of bullets this dums flattened out or ex- summer when the depart- panded inside the gelatin ment was considering lumps, sometimes going to whether to switch bullets. pieces and generally doing Using high-speed camera worse damage than standard equipment and firing bullets bullets. Also, as expected, into big lumps of gelatin, the dumdums tended to stay Wilson and his men were inside the blocks rather able to analyze the proper- than go through. The gelatin ties of the different kinds of has some of the consistency bullets. Cost: $26 per round of flesh and ballistics ex- fired. perts customarily use the substance to conduct such IACP police weapons center keting high velocity, flat tests. cerning so-called 'legal am- in Gaithersburg, said the and hollow-tipped expanding munition,' it should be em- Asked 'about the alleged undergoes a bullets that police depart- advantages of the dumdums, "mild expansion" inside ments could use in their .38 phasized that Geneva Con- Wilson countered that if a bodies, mild enough to ena- special , the stand- vention rulings do not apply policeman misses a criminal ble New York to "avoid all ard police weapon. to police departments." with a dumdum, "there's al- the emotional criticisms that Super Vel beat the major "It was The Hague con- ways somebody behind him, tend to accompany" the high munitions manufacturers vention," said Wallet'. "We some old lady crossing the velocity dumdums. into the growing market for never signed The Hague street with her kid." The high velocity bullets this kind of shell. Winches- convention." "The bullet we have does used in the Washington sub- ter and Remington and the Wallien said he could not the job," said Lt. George R. urbs have a muzzle speed of other big makers now are reveal the numbers of Long, a firearms expert with about 1,200 feet per second, marketing similar kinds of rounds that Super Vel sells, the Washington department. as opposed to 800 for regu- ammunition. Prince George's but that the company has He said that with dum- lar bullets. police used the Super Vel been successful. dums, "You almost always Both the dumdums and hollow-point shells. "We tried to develop a have a fatality because of standard bullets are .38-cali- Super Vel promoted the round to give the officer a the expansion rate and the ber and fly straight through new bullets in gun, sports sbetter break," he said. massive hemorrhaging. The the air without tumbling. It and police magazines, ac- object is to apprehend, not is their tips that first hit a cording to Ernest Wallien, to kill, the individual." target—and if the tip is flat the firm's vice president. Deputy Chief Maurice or hollow instead of round, Writers for the magazines Cullihane said Wasshington the force of impact tends to tested the new bullets and police have had no signifi- cause the soft lead to flatten many liked them. cant problems with their out. "Just about the ideal po- traditional bullets ricochet- Zunno said there is a good lice cartridge," wrote one i ing or failing to stop crimi- deal of subjectivity involved nals who may be threaten- firearms specialist in Sports in analyzing the properties Afield Gun Annual in 1971. ing lives. of different bullets and that, The ballistics study here "Super Vel ammunition "what's one man's fancy is with its 110-grain, hollow- came at the same time the another man's poison." New York City police point bullet made a world of de- A leading pathologist, difference," wrote Dean partment, the largest in the Maryland Medical Examiner Grennell in Gun World in nation, switched to a new Dr. Russell Fisher, said he 1967. He wrote that tests flat-tipped bullet, called a has examined dozens of .38- showed that where standard semiwadcutter, this summer. caliber fatalities and found .38 caliber police slugs de New York police officials that dumdums cause the iflected from car doors, the said a year of testing con- wound channels inside the Super Vel "walks smartly vinced them that the semi- body "to get bigger and big- through." wadcutter had less tendency ger." A Super Vel brochure to ricochet or pass through However, Dr. Fisher said says, "The pure lead core of bodies than the traditional that while the dumdum the bullet, combined with round-tip bullets they had "stops them quicker" and the thing gilding metal jacket been using. has "a harder hitting and the ultra-high velocity, Unlike the dumdums power," he thinks that it produces the ultimate in hy- adopted in some of Washing- "doesn't increase lethality drostatic shocking power." tons' suburbs, however, the much." Another Super Vel 'bro- semiwadcutter is not a high Both he and Zunno em- chure says, "And. for those velocity bullet. New York of- phasized that the standard who shy from the discus- ficials felt that high velocity police bullets also kill easily sions of the 'pros and cons of bullets would give a recoil and cause bad wounds. high velocity, highly de- or "kick" when fired that In 1966, the Super Vel Co., structive loads because of could reduce marksmanship. a small munitions firm in the widespread opinion and Frank Zunno, head of the Shelbyville, tnd., began mar- various old wivestaleS con-