SLUH
The voice of the student left at St. Louis U. High
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Volume 1, Issue 1
Platform: What is the Progressive? The SLUH Progressive is a biweekly publication that seeks to inform and persuade the SLUH community on issues of local and global importance. We aim to be a strong and serious voice for the student left while avoiding the pompous language and clamor that often surround politics. Above all, we strive for accuracy and clarity and encourage participation from all class years and across the liberal spectrum. The opinions put forth by the Progressive do not represent the opinions held by the school or by any of its administrators and
are solely those of the author or authors. As much as we encourage feedback, compliments, and criticism, the Progressive cannot guarantee that any letter or article will be printed, and the editors reserve the right to bar the publication of any letter or article which advocates stances in direct opposition to our platform. We will make every effort, however, to communicate with the author or authors of a letter to help make the article suitable for publication. The editors will reply to any published letter that demands or merits a response or correction.
After Fort Hood:
Another look at handgun control policy
Jack Newsham isn’t clear yet if he even used the second militaries of NATO nations—yet they are available under the loosest of circumstances Editor weapon, but it is known that he used the to any civilian who could want them, a
Pfc. Marquest Smith said that it sounded like someone was making popcorn. In reality, it was one of the most dangerous moments of his life. “Just then, a round came through the fabricated wall,” he said, pointing to where the bullet had lodged in the heel of his tan boot. “Another second, and it would have been my spine.” At 1:34 p.m. on November 5, Nidal Malik Hasan began a five-minute shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas, in which he fired over 100 rounds, killing 13 and injuring 30. After the initial confusion, accusations flew. This was pre-traumatic stress disorder, some said. This was a terrorist attack, argued others. The Army should have known about Hasan’s past as an Islamic radical. Brian Levin of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism characterized the attack as “a volatile mix of personal distress, psychological issues, and an ideology that can be sculpted to justify and explain (Hasan’s) anti-social leanings.” Regardless of one’s belief on the matter, several facts are clear: Hasan bore two pistols, chased and executed wounded and unarmed soldiers and civilians, and sought to inflict as much damage as possible—and our system enabled him to do so. Hasan, by all reports, bore two pistols: an FN Herstal Five-Seven semiautomatic, known to have been purchased at a local firearms dealer in August, and a .357 Magnum revolver. It
Five-Seven, and that he wasn’t intending to be finished when he was downed, as a medic who treated him reported that the pockets of his combat fatigues were full of pistol magazines, the type used by the FiveSeven. The Five-Seven (alternately, FiveseveN) earns its name from the bullet it fires, a 5.7 x 28 mm round. If you can imagine it, this bullet is rather skinny; it is over an inch long, and though designed to be used by military forces, it is much smaller than most pistol and assault rifle bullets. Here’s the rub: the 5.7 x 28 mm round is extremely lethal. Gel tests have had the bullet penetrate nearly a foot, but more important is its effect on human tissue; roughly two inches after penetration, it begins to “yaw,” which means that the one-inch long bullet literally flips, end over end, leaving a gaping wound, one that has powdered bone and split organs in half. On top of this wound is the even larger one produced by the fact that the 5.7 round is a hollow point, meaning the bullet “mushrooms,” increasing the area of the wound channel by a factor of roughly three. Though this is generally a safety feature that prevents bullet ricochet on firing ranges and increases stopping power, it also means that the wound channel is much larger than it would be on a jacketed bullet. However, in combat situations, hollow points have so frequently been fatal that they have been banned for the past century and across the
point supported by a recent revelation from the Government Accountability Office that showed suspected terrorists have purchased firearms or explosives over 865 times since Sept. 11, 2001. If anyone sought to do great harm in a short amount of time, he or she wouldn’t have to look much farther than the Five-Seven. The weapon formerly used the civilian-legal hollow-point SS192 round, demonstrated in tests by the Brady Campaign to be armor-piercing, contrary to the claims of FN Herstal; now, however, that round has been discontinued. Though the discontinuation of a “cop killer” seems like a sigh of relief, the new SS197 “sporting round” is a ballistic tip bullet; this means that it is also a hollow point, but with a polymer tip in the depression—advertised on the website of FN Herstal as a feature “for rapid expansion,” a guarantee that the bullet would not pass through its (human) target, but complete its yaw to ensure high lethality. This may be the bullet that fells our soldiers. So the question is, when are we going to learn? When are we going to seriously crack down on illegal gun sales and ownership? When are we going to call on our representatives and senators to keep pocket-sized WMDs out of the hands of any Seung-hui Cho, Eric Harris, Dylan
(continued on the next page)