“Norwegian gunman Anders Behring Breivik used Dum-Dum bullets,” dailymail.co.uk reports, “which explode inside the body and often kill their targets instantly – on his deadly rampage around the idyllic holiday island of Utoya.” Huh? You can’t really expect the Daily Mail to consult a civilian ballistic expert on these matters; where would they find one? No doubt the British police won’t discuss bullet wounds for security reasons. The Internet is so unreliable. And international dialing is so expensive. So, instead of facts, the Mail provides hyperbole . . .
The chief surgeon at a hospital treating victims of Norway’s camp massacre said the killer used special bullets designed to disintegrate inside the body and cause maximum internal damage.
Dr Colin Poole, head of surgery at Ringriket Hospital in Honefoss north west of Oslo, said surgeons treating 16 gunshot victims have recovered no full bullets.
He said: ‘These bullets more or less exploded inside the body. These bullets inflicted internal damage that’s absolutely horrible.’
Ballistics experts say so-called dum-dum bullets also are lighter in weight and can be fired with greater accuracy over varying distances.
They commonly are used by air marshals on aeroplanes and hunters of small animals.
Poole, a surgeon for 26 years at the hospital, said the bullets were ‘hyper-fragmentable’ and produced confusing pictures on X-rays.
‘It’s caused us all kinds of extra problems in dealing with the wounds they cause, with very strange trajectories. The effect they cause inside the body is like a thousand pin pricks.’
So, did Anders Behring Breivik use hollow-point, fragmenting or frangible ammunition (the sort that U.S. Air Marshalls use)? And what does “hyper-fragmentable” mean? It turns my stomach to even ask, but that’s the business we’re in.