I think you either overestimate overpenetration at range or underestimate the training a sniper has on that very subject.
OK, so lets think this out. These are pointed at the crowd correct so lets assume the threat is from the crowd.
You have some Ne’er-do-well in the crowd who is planing some type of trouble, you notice this person looking “dastardly” from your sniper nest. You radio in and get the go ahead to take the shot with your trusty Remington M700. You shoot centre mass as you have been trained to do and the villain drops like a puppet with its strings cut.
You saved the day right? Oh no that is just the start, since the round fired was a 7.62x51mm NATO (there is no “rubber” round for this firearm) it went straight through the torso of that protester with a box knife and into and then back out of at least a few other people in the dense crowd (must be their fault for not wearing better body armour). The gunshot is still noticed even with the police issued silencer and at seeing the carnage the crowd does what crowds do, they stampede.
After the chaos settles down the body count will be a lot higher then that one person with a box cutter could ever manage (not that you can even say they where going to do anything).
These are not there to protect people, that is not their role, this is not an action movie.
kerrigan778@lemmy.world 6 months ago
M0oP0o@mander.xyz 6 months ago
As someone who has shot this round, no I don’t think I am overestimating the penetration. Also as it turns out police (I think state troopers in this case) operate at ranges of 100 yards or less according to the police https://www.police1.com/swat/articles/a-first-of-its-kind-effort-describes-police-sniper-use-of-force-engagements-in-us-j7JjrYjYZmPtsoMt/. I know of no way to magic a bullet fired into a crowd to not over penetrate and yes I checked if there was some sort of less lethal or low pen police round (I found none).
Know your target and what is beyond it. This is basic firearm safety, but that seems to not be common in the US of A.
kerrigan778@lemmy.world 6 months ago
There are a million low pen rounds, they’re called expanding hollow points or fracturing rounds. They are designed to dump all their energy in soft targets, they are ubiquitous in hunting.
M0oP0o@mander.xyz 6 months ago
Funny you should compare the round I am assuming they are using (just went with the current most common police rifle) to a 308 but not a 300 win mag. They use both the 308 and the 7.62x51 NATO from what I can look up.
The 7.62x51 nato has more punch then a 308 and a bit less vilocity then a 300 win mag. Now if you where to compare it to a 30-06 or a 7.62x54R then yeah sure. The point is the police are not using anything more fancy then hollowpoint according to what little I can find oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/…/040106aa.pdf and I don’t know any even slightly competent shooter (hunters more so) that would take the risk of that hollowpoint stopping at the first target with a 308 or hell even a .223.
I think we are getting lost in the weeds but my point is you don’t set up sniper teams to protect people, you set them up to take people out or intimidate.
Syn_Attck@lemmy.today 6 months ago
Welp, thankfully you have a very easy way to identify if you’re right or if you’re wrong.
If you wake up tomorrow morning and 24h news cycles are megaphoning the murder of innocent protestors, you were right.
If nothing happens, you’ll learn you were wrong, and hopefully you’ll learn from it.
M0oP0o@mander.xyz 6 months ago
If nothing happens, you’ll learn you were wrong, and hopefully you’ll learn from it.
How does this make me wrong? All I see is 40ish arrests so far and unless they save the day with some sniper shot my point still stands. I am not sure how you think if the police don’t kill people somehow that is an own. This is not a rational response to a protest unless you are in a place with very poor civil unrest or one that is not very free.
aidan@lemmy.world 6 months ago
You saved the day right? Oh no that is just the start, since the round fired was a 7.62x51mm NATO (there is no “rubber” round for this firearm) it went straight through the torso of that protester with a box knife and into and then back out of at least a few other people
High angle means it would likely go into the ground. Also could use hollow point though, I don’t know if police use hollow point on rifles.
M0oP0o@mander.xyz 6 months ago
They use various soft point rounds (you can’t really use hollow points on high velocity rifles). The rounds are basically hollow points with a plastic ballistic tip.
I would not want to be behind someone shot with a .308 fragmenting round or not.
Here is a video showing the sort of penetration at 100 yards (what distance police snipers shoot from)
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
You saved the day right? Oh no that is just the start, since the round fired was a 7.62x51mm NATO (there is no “rubber” round for this firearm) it went straight through the torso of that protester with a box knife and into and then back out of at least a few other people in the dense crowd (must be their fault for not wearing better body armour). The gunshot is still noticed even with the police issued silencer and at seeing the carnage the crowd does what crowds do, they stampede.
it depends on how densely packed the people are and how high the approach angle of the bullet is, at 45 degrees, in center mass, it’s only grazing a foot or two before being at knee level lol.
Emmie@lemm.ee 6 months ago
I imagine there are situations where benefit outweigh the risks. Probably not your interestingly creative scenario. But congratulations for your vivid depiction.
M0oP0o@mander.xyz 6 months ago
The issue is I can not even with my vivid imagination can think of a scenario where shooting into a crowd (where these teams have their rifles pointed) would have benefits that outweigh the risks.
The use for sniper teams on roof tops is in VIP protection (as in fuck all the little guys as long as the important one is safe) and offensive actions.
Emmie@lemm.ee 6 months ago
I don’t need to go back in time by far. Moscow shootings. One or four good positioned snipers could save some lives there.
Probably someone in a car driving over protesters, someone shooting an automatic weapon.
M0oP0o@mander.xyz 6 months ago
In all these cases the teams would have to reaim outside of the crowd, and also unless they have been given permission to shoot at their discretion (oh please no) they need to call it in. Not really a great solution where the benefits outweigh the risks.
And since no snipers saved the day in Moscow it does not really work as an example of snipers being used to defend a crowd. I also doubt with what we now know about the internal workings of the Russian federation I kinda doubt their snipers would have been fully capable.
5gruel@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Or you know, like, deterrence.
M0oP0o@mander.xyz 6 months ago
From protesting or attacking protesters? Its getting hard to tell.