Joe Biden once again opened his mouth to speak on what he calls “rational” gun laws – and once again, it would have been far better had he physically inserted his foot instead. There was the old classic, of course: You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed. But he also shocked us with a new fact: Apparently, a 9mm bullet can blow your lung right out of your body. It has long been evident that Democrats, in general, are often not experts on the subject matter of firearms – but that one demonstrates a lack of even a shred of the common sense the left loves to boast of in their gun-grabbing policies.
The 9mm: When You Absolutely Must Remove an Entire Lung
The golden nugget in this question-and-answer session, however, came in the form of a classic Biden story – the kind that almost certainly never happened. He claimed to have once spoken to a trauma surgeon in New York about why more folks seemed to be dying of gunshot wounds, even though the number of shootings hadn’t really risen. Here’s how that conversation allegedly went:
“And I sat with a trauma doctor, and I asked him – I said, ‘What’s the difference? Why are so many people …’ – and not that many more people were being shot. This is now 20 years ago, or 25 years. I said, ‘Why are they dying?’ And they showed me x-rays. He said, ‘A .22-caliber bullet will lodge in the lung, and we can probably get it out, may be able to get it, and save the life. A 9mm bullet blows the lung out of the body.’”
A .22-caliber bullet can mean a lot of things, including the standard .223 Remington or 5.56mm NATO chambering common to AR-15s. However, since Biden claims the lung-shot patient has decent chances of survival, we can likely assume he means the .22 LR or .22 Short rimfire cartridges, which are tiny projectiles moved by fairly small amounts of powder. Can a human take a .22 LR to the lung and live? Sure – Ronald Reagan did. But possibly and probably are a far cry apart. Let’s give old Joe the benefit of the doubt, however, and pretend he isn’t completely wrong about .22s. The .22 LR typically consists of a lead bullet weighing between 30 grains (1.9 grams) and 40 grains (2.6 grams). That comes out of the common rifle at anywhere from 1,200 feet per second to 1,640 feet per second. It might have as much as 190 foot-pounds of energy as it leaves the muzzle, and it’s just 0.223 inches in diameter.
The 9mmx19mm Parabellum, also called 9mm Luger or just 9mm – is the most popular pistol cartridge in the world. That caliber is commonly offered in 115, 124, and 147 grain projectiles, which are, of course, much heavier than the .22 LR. But they’re also typically moving slower. When fired from a pistol, the 100-grain round moves as fast as 1,300 feet per second – but the larger and more common rounds barely break 1,000, with the heaviest ones falling in the 850-950 feet per second range. Most carry between 250 and 350 foot-pounds of energy upon leaving the muzzle. The bullet is 9.01 mm in diameter, which is 0.355 inches.
The 9mm is, therefore, considerably larger than the .22 LR, and while it generally moves slower, it also typically transfers more energy to the target. More energy means more damage, right? Even so, as Bill Smock, a police surgeon at the Louisville Metro Police department, told PBS after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, “a 9-millimeter handgun creates a hole that disrupts three quarters of an inch around the bullet’s path.”
Anyone who has ever seen an image or a model of the inside of a person’s chest knows that the lungs take up, well, the majority of the chest. Lungs are big; .22-caliber and 9mm bullets are not. Even the world’s largest commercially available handgun round – the .500 S&W Magnum, which has a bullet diameter of half an inch – won’t blow an entire lung out of a person’s body. Biden’s claim that a 9mm can do it is simply and blatantly false, whether a trauma surgeon actually tricked him into believing that or not.
5, 50, 500 – How Many Rounds Does It Shoot!?
When asked by a reporter on Memorial Day if he thinks some element of gun control could be more successful now, Biden’s responded that he just doesn’t know. But there’s one thing he does know. “I know that it makes no sense to be able to purchase something that can fire up to 300 rounds,” the president explained. And after just a little rambling, he concluded, “and so there’s only one reason for something that can fire, you know, 100 shots.”
(Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Everyone knows about the 100-round drum – that’s old news. But now, apparently, Biden’s going after 300 rounders. Some of you might be shocked to discover that there are, in fact, 300-round drum magazines. In fact, there is a 400 rounder as well … for BB and airsoft guns! So what is the president afraid of here, belt-fed machine guns?
Taking his words more literally, of course, any gun can fire 100 rounds, 300 rounds, or 5,000 rounds – just not in a single loading. Even if we regulate detachable magazines to ten rounds, ten of those comes up to 100 potential shots fired.
Laugh at the Fool – Until He’s Elected
There’s an old saying that it’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Most folks seem to have the common sense not to speak on matters they don’t understand as if they do – and especially not to someone they know happens to be a subject matter expert. Yet left-wing politicians have long demonstrated their folly in this manner. From former California Senator Kevin de Leon’s ghost gun that fires a “.30 caliber clip in half a second” to Biden’s organ-removing 9mm, members of the Democratic Party have routinely stood in front of the nation and spewed pure misinformation. In the president’s case, the White House posted the transcript of that very conversation on its website without any clarifying remarks or edits. Could the entire administration be as ignorant as the president on this issue? Yes, actually – that isn’t just possible; it’s likely.
It’s funny, in its own way, sure. But it’s also dangerous. These people are given the authority to regulate our lives. Oh yes, laugh at the fools – right up to the point they’re put in power. Then Americans are forced to realize that one oaf in office means thousands – perhaps millions – more at the ballot box. Our rights hang on their ignorance – and that’s no laughing matter.
