The day of the Newtown massacre, the first reports I encountered while watching the news is that an unidentified shooter had committed a massacre at a school killing a number of children and adults and then killed himself. The Police recovered handguns from the scene and a Bushmasters AR-15 .223 in the trunk of his vehicle. Now, keep in mind that the coverage of this story was highly inaccurate and the facts were changed several times during the day.
By the next day, the Federal government seemed to have taken control of the situation and it was announced that it was a .223 AR-15 that was used to kill the 20 children and 6 adults. As of today, the report that a AR-15 was used to commit this massacre still stands.
The .223 and/or 5.56mm is a Military round and it's success is going on 50 years. The military incorporated this round into the M-16 and M-4. Later, a civilian version of this gun was developed, the AR-15. Muzzle velocities of this gun have been measured at 3200 fps (feet per second) and have massive ft. lbs of energy behind them. In ballistics gelatin, the rounds fired from a M-16/M4/AR-15 have been known to travel 18" or more, the average is around 12". This all depends on what type of rounds were fired.
The image below shows 8 different .223/5.56 steel rounds that were fired in ballistics gel. According to wikipedia.com, ballistics gel is a testing medium scientifically correlated to swine muscle tissue (which is comparable to human muscle tissue) in which the effects of bullet wounds can be simulated.
Taking the results of this image into consideration, a child that was shot from a distance of 10 yards/30 ft in the chest from a .223 Assault rifle would also exit the body. I am a 27 year old male, 6'3", 170 pounds. I took a measurement of the depth of my body (chest to back) and my body is about 11.5" deep. The children in the Sandy Hook massacre were between the ages of 6-11, whose bodies were nowhere near as deep as 11.5." This means that if one of these children were shot in the chest with this type of gun, the odds are the bullet would have exited through the back.
Also take note, depending on the type of round used, some of these bullets broke apart into small pieces. The common .223 round weighs around 5.5 grams. One of the handguns that were recovered in the shooting was a 9mm SIG Sauer P226. The common 9mm round weighs 7.5 grams. If the bullet does not have enough velocity to shoot through a victim or it comes in contact with bones, it will break apart causing multiple fragments or "shrapnel."
Now, I will discuss where all this bullet information comes into play with the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary.
1.) The veteran medical examiner told reporters that the victims had all been identified and their bodies released. In what appeared to be an uncomfortable moment for Carver, he said "all of the victims he had examined had all been shot by a Bushmaster .223 caliber assault rifle", one of at least two weapons Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old suspected shooter, used to commit one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.
2.) Carver, who performed autopsies on seven of the victims, said the wounds he knew about were caused by a "long weapon." Asked by a reporter whether the rifle was the primary weapon, he responded, "Yes."
Those were 2 statements taken from the Coroner. Now, in order to claim that the AR-15 was used to murder these individuals, the coroner had to of recovered bullets from these victims. These high velocity rounds penetrated children that had weak bones and very little, if any, muscle mass. In reference to the image above, the bullets would have exited these children in fragments or a compressed chunk of lead/metal. The percentage of weight retained after a bullet hits a target depreciates as it breaks apart or is "ground down."
According to the coroners report, these children were shot multiple times. If the reports are wrong, and a .223 AR-15 was not used and in fact it was either the SIG Sauer 9mm or 10mm Glock, how do you determine what size bullet was recovered from the victims? Handguns are lower velocity guns with higher caliber rounds opposed to a AR-15. This lower velocity means that the bullets will travel through a human body slower and in result, will have more time to expand or break into small fragments. There is no way to tell AR-15 bullet fragments from 9mm bullet fragments. The only possible way to differentiate the 2 is by weighing the recovered bullet. The spent shell casing will tell us what brand/kind of round was used, then we can determine the weight of the bullet itself. Like I previously stated, an AR-15 bullet weighs about 5.5 grams and a 9mm bullet weighs about 7.5 grams, so if the recovered bullet is over 5.5 grams we can determine it is, in fact a 9mm round.
In conclusion, I do not believe that the AR-15 was used in the Sandy Hook massacre. All of the homicides took place in classrooms or at close range. So, the probability of the children being shot with such a high velocity weapon such as an AR-15 and the bullets not exiting the bodies is not likely! I believe that the Federal Government/Obama is using this massacre as a front to push new gun laws. With a major incident like the Sandy Hook massacre taking place, it provides the government the press coverage to fabricate a story to enrage many already anti-gun citizens and groups. I do believe that is only the start of the war on guns!
Wikipedia - Sandy Hook massacre
Wikipedia - Ballistics gel
YouTube - Coroners press conference
