Rubber bullet

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Shotgun cartridges Fiocchi anti crime, 18.5 mm caliber. Rubber bullet charge: 15 balls with 8.3 mm diameter, 0.58 g mass, i.e. 1.93 g / cm³ mean density and 240.6 m / s muzzle velocity.

A special type of ammunition is generally referred to as a rubber bullet (sometimes also referred to as rubber shot ). This is made of rubber or other plastics. It is primarily used for so-called danger prevention and is used as a non-lethal or less lethal weapon in demonstrations and street battles . Rubber bullets are usually fired with the help of a rifle or pistol . There are a number of extremely different rubber bullets, the mass of which can range from approx. 0.2 grams to over 100 g and which can hit with energies of a few joules and over 100 J. Serious injuries, e. B. the (one-sided) loss of eyesight reported.

effect

Rubber bullets are not used to kill people, but to scare them off and incapacitate them due to injuries . In principle, however, a fired projectile can kill a person if it hits with the appropriate force. For example, a shot in the neck of a person can crush the windpipe or even break the spine and cause death. However, this can only occur with heavy, high-energy rubber bullets. In the Northern Ireland conflict , 17 people are known to have died as a result of the use of rubber bullets, the mass of which was 135 g and which had more than 200 J of energy. Rubber bullets with an energy of 10 J or less are not life threatening, but eye loss is possible. Primarily, therefore, the attacker's legs or torso should be targeted in order to keep the risk as low as possible. The problem with this is that a police officer's aiming ability can be limited during a street battle or demonstration. But even at an operating distance of 20 meters, the spread is 2 meters. In any case, rubber bullets should only be used from a distance of at least 25 meters to avoid serious injuries. Conversely, the effective range is usually a maximum of 50 meters. Although the actually usable operating distance covers a relatively small range and the low accuracy does not appear to be suitable for adequately determining the addressee of hazard prevention measures according to German police law, the use of rubber ammunition is still a significantly more lenient means compared to normal ammunition.

History and commitment

Zurich police officer with MZW (multi-purpose thrower). This device can be used to shoot rubber shot packages as well as tear gas canisters.

Rubber bullets are mostly used during operations by the police or the military, in which - often in connection with water cannons and tear gas - demonstrators and violent people are to be kept at a distance from the police officers or an object to be protected. The rubber and plastic bullets have been used in the Northern Ireland conflict since 1968.

In most European countries, the police are prohibited from using rubber bullets; water cannons are usually used as a substitute . Today the UK no longer uses rubber bullets. However, Belgian NATO soldiers used rubber bullets against Afghan demonstrators. The police corps in Switzerland use rubber shotgun launchers based on the W 73 / MZW 91, which fire a package of 35 hexagonal hard rubber projectiles weighing 10 grams. In Germany, too, rubber bullets are occasionally used by the police, for example during the riots during the G20 summit in Hamburg in 2017 .

The Guardia Civil in Spain uses shooting cups as attachments on repeating shotguns (so-called “pump guns”). With the help of a starter cartridge, various projectiles are shot out of the cup from these weapons. As in Switzerland, these weapons are able to fire rubber bullets, packets of rubber bullets or tear gas bullets. It has been proven that rubber bullets were used in the dispute over the independence of Catalonia from Spanish police units and led to numerous injuries. Due to the devastating consequences of the use of rubber bullets by various French police forces during the yellow vest protests (from November 17, 2018), the use of these weapons came back into discussion.

criticism

The German police union (GdP) rejected the use of rubber bullets. Its former chairman Konrad Freiberg said that long-range weapons with rubber bullets were not a suitable means of deployment and that the danger for bystanders was too great. Frank Richter, chairman of the GdP North Rhine-Westphalia, stated in 2012 in this context: “Anyone who wants to use rubber bullets consciously accepts that there will be deaths and serious injuries. That is unacceptable in a democracy. ”In contrast, the German Police Union called for the introduction of rubber bullets. Rainer Wendt , the federal chairman, said that the appropriate distance between 30 and 40 meters was missing.

The Swiss Association of Independent Doctors called for a ban on ammunition. The use of rubber bullets has been criticized again throughout Switzerland since September 2013, when a nineteen-year-old was struck in the eye during riots between police and demonstrators in Winterthur and lost over 80% of her eyesight while trying to get to safety behind cars. As a result, the Young Greens demanded a ban on rubber bullets.

See also

Web links

Commons : Rubber Bullet  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files
Wiktionary: rubber bullet  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eye Injuries During Protests Are an Emerging Public Health Problem , on the website of the American Association of Ophthalmologists , June 19, 2020, accessed July 31, 2020
  2. ↑ Rahel Klein: France: On patrol with rubber bullets and tear gas. In: msn.com. June 23, 2020, accessed July 31, 2020 .
  3. ^ Sellier K., Kneubuehl B .: Wound ballistics and their ballistic basics . 2nd Edition. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg 2001, ISBN 3-540-66604-4 , pp. 319 ff .
  4. ↑ Nico Drimecker, Globalization in the public debate: Interpretation frame of a popular term, Hamburg 2009 ISBN 9783836669559 , page 184
  5. ↑ Flash-Ball successor: Shot eyes, splintered jaws - the rubber bullet launcher LBD 40 splits France , Stern, February 9, 2019
  6. ↑ a b Yassin Musharbash, Christian Stöcker: Demo weapons: hellish noise, heat rays, paving stones. In: spiegel.de. June 5, 2007, archived from the original on March 4, 2017 ; accessed on April 17, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Minutes / verbatim minutes of the public meeting of the Interior Committee. (PDF, 5.8 MB) Parliamentary Database Hamburgische Bürgerschaft , July 19, 2017, p. 56 , archived from the original on August 25, 2017 ; accessed on April 17, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Protest against the crisis in Spain: Police use rubber bullets. In: n-tv.de. September 26, 2012, archived from the original on March 17, 2017 ; accessed on April 17, 2018 .
  9. ^ Riot control guns: What's all the fuss about Flash Balls in France? Retrieved January 28, 2019, February 11, 2019 (UK English).
  10. ^ GdP NRW: Use of rubber bullets is irresponsible - police union. In: gdp.de. June 5, 2012, archived from the original on April 4, 2016 ; accessed on April 17, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Christoph Schäfer: "We need rubber bullets". In: sueddeutsche.de. December 13, 2008, archived from the original on January 13, 2017 ; accessed on April 17, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Mirko Plüss: Winterthur / Zurich: Higher Court demands rubber shot lists, witness statements and a hospital report. In: landbote.ch. May 6, 2015, archived from the original on March 4, 2017 ; accessed on April 17, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Jakob Bächtold: Winterthur: Proceedings against the police for the use of rubber shot will be discontinued. In: landbote.ch. June 5, 2016, archived from the original on March 4, 2017 ; accessed on April 17, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Winterthur: dance demo: injured woman does not go to federal court. In: landbote.ch. July 6, 2016, archived from the original on March 4, 2017 ; accessed on April 17, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Young Greens for the rubber shot ban. In: nzz.ch. October 11, 2013, archived from the original on March 5, 2017 ; accessed on April 17, 2018 .