Trafficking in the Unspeakable : Does America need bullets that pierce police vests or cause ‘baseball-size’ wounds?

There’s enough firepower on American streets today without a new generation of killer bullets designed to inflict even more grotesque carnage. Yet some arms manufacturers see the promise of monstrous bodily harm as nothing more than a marketing tool for a new wave of ammunition. Can they really ply this deadly trade without reflecting on the huge price the nation is paying for the countless bullets being carried around by Americans who either want to exercise criminality or shoot at those who do?

Last year the Olin Corp.’s Winchester ammunition division was denounced for marketing the Black Talon, a bullet touted for its “tissue-cutting and crushing action.” Olin withdrew the ammunition after some in Congress threatened to tax the bullet out of existence.

Now, Signature Products Corp. of Huntsville, Ala., a company that specialized in making the “stealth” materials that enable aircraft to evade enemy radar, wants the government’s permission to manufacture what it calls Black Rhino ammunition, made of polymer plastics and capable, it says, of penetrating bulletproof vests--such as those worn by police officers. And if that doesn’t satisfy the consumer’s blood lust, it offers a version guaranteed to cause “baseball-size” wounds inside the human body. (It’s little comfort that some experts consider Signature’s claims unsubstantiated and perhaps exaggerated.)

After an avalanche of criticism by law enforcement, physicians and gun-control advocates last week, the Alabama company promised to withhold the Black Rhino . . . but not the bullet that causes the huge wounds. Clearly there’s little goodwill here for the federal government to rely on. If the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms doesn’t turn down the application to manufacture such munitions, then Congress should do the honors by banning the bullets altogether.

The estimated annual expense related to gun violence is a staggering $16 billion. There is no justification for allowing into circulation ammunition that will only inflate that number.