It was the search of the crime that turned up troubling evidence: a shell casing from an FN Herstal 5.7 pistol. It is a 20-round, Belgian-made semi-automatic that is capable of firing armor-piercing bullets that can penetrate a policeman’s protective vest. Wednesday morning, the Chicago department’s rangemaster said the rounds used in Tuesday’s shooting were not the armor-piercing variety, which by law cannot be sold to civilians.
So what’s the damned problem? Any center fire rifle cartridge can punch through level II and III body armor. This apparently wasn’t that type of ammunition.  So who friggin cares?
But police are concerned that a concealable handgun capable of firing armor-piercing bullets is apparently in the hands of criminals.
“There is no reason for the average sportsman to have a weapon with a 20-round magazine capability for a handgun. There is just no point to it,” said Matthew Tobias, deputy superintendent.
Yeah, expect for the fact that the Five-Seven is a fantastic target gun, there’s no reason for anyone to own one. But because it might be able to penetrate level II and III armor, we should restrict it, even though a lot of rounds are capable of doing that.
Oh well, at least they aren’t talking about Virginia Tech.
When I hear somebody say that, I sometimes almost feel like. It’s just too much of an insult.
Dang it, no editing. I meant “Sometimes, I almost feel like slapping them.”
One of these days I’m going to have the $900 smackers I need for one of those guns. I have no idea, none whatsoever what I’d do with it because it’s too damn big to carry, but I want one just because it makes liberals wet their pants.
I also wish for the following: That Ruger would make a carbine chambered for 5.7; and that Glock/Sig/Whomever would make some handguns chambered for it. Unless we get production outside of FN, it’s going to be stuck as a novelty round, and it’s way too cool for that.
I tried a Five Seven at the NRA convention. It didn’t feel very good in my hands.
“There is no reason for the average sportsman to have a weapon with…”
Luckily for me, I’m an ABOVE average sportsman! :)
Well, not really, but that defense is no more asinine than their assertion.
Once again, the anti’s show that they do not view self defense as lawful use of a firearm.
I also hear that someone is making armor-piercing ammo for it domestically, so it and the PS90 may actually be useful for defense.
I doubt that Joseph. Armor piercing ammo fired from a handgun is pretty tightly regulated under federal law, and the laws of many states. If you ever want to undertake an exercise in the obscure and absurd, I direct you to federal and state armor piercing ammunition laws.
It may not be legal for a Five-Seven, but it should be fine for a PS90, and in a Five-Seven during SHTF, since ammo legality probably won’t be much of an issue then.
That’s where you would be wrong. See, the ATF gets upset if there is any handgun made for that particular caliber. Once someone makes a handgun for it, no ammo can be made that is considered armor piercing, whatever that means.
This is one area of gun law I don’t really understand too well, even after reading about it.
Oh, whoops. Looks like I was trying to think in a way that made some sort of sense when dealing with the ATF.
The CZ 52 (7.62 x 25) will do the same thing for 200 bucks and it doesn’t need AP to do it.