
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 28, 1994                   TAG: 9501170018
SECTION: EDITORIALS                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SHOOT'EM-UP

AMID talk about reversing passage of the Brady handgun-control law when control of Congress changes hands next month, comes news of wondrous new products that will make the guns more lethal than ever: two new hyper-destructive handgun bullets.

One, called Rhino-Ammo, is made to break into thousands of fragments, each of which "becomes lethal shrapnel and is hurled into vital organs, lungs, circulatory system components, the heart and other tissues." The beauty of this baby, its manufacturer says, "is that it makes an incredible wound" - the size of a baseball, when test-fired into a gelatin mold. Darned if the bullets weren't too late hitting the market, though, for use as stocking stuffers this year.

The other, Black Rhino, is made with a point that can penetrate body armor, commonly used by police for protection in dangerous situations - busting major drug rings, shooting it out with bank robbers, or intervening in the domestic disputes of folks who exercise their right to bear arms in far greater numbers against loved ones than against threatening strangers.

Police are all upset, the party-poopers. They already got the Congress - but that was that old, Democratic Congress - to ban the manufacture of "cop killer" bullets that were coated with Teflon, the better to slide through protective gear and pierce a vital organ or two. That ban applied only to bullets, however. These Rhino-stoppers are made ofplastics So police won't have to worry about dying of lead poisoning if they should happen to fall into the wrong hands.

And don't be calling these new action-adventure enhancements "cop killers," either. They are strictly defensive rounds, to be used only when armed intruders are attacking one's person on the street or forcing their way into one's home. The inventor said so. And the Black Rhino will be sold only to police and federally licensed firearms dealers. All 250,000 of them.

Imagine how safe our homes and streets will be after these beauts start being sold - just as they've grown safer and safer with each advance in firepower. Rhino-Ammo: Peacemakers on Earth.

by CNB