Legislators voice fear on new armor-piercing weapons
Data show guns may reach gangs
Legislators expressed concern yesterday over the distribution of a new firearm that can pierce body armor, after internal Boston police documents confirmed that the powerful weapon was used in two recent shootings in the city, and that it may have fallen into the hands of Boston street gangs.
US Representative Martin T. Meehan said he has cosponsored legislation that would ban a handgun called the ''FN Five-Seven." Meehan, who sits on the House Judiciary Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee, said in an interview that he had co-sponsored the legislation last March at the request of law enforcement officers, after he became convinced of the weapon's power and of the danger it posed for crime fighters.
''It's very easy to get ahold of bullets that pierce body armor," Meehan said. ''There's no reason these guns should be commercially available. They have no legitimate hunting or sporting purpose. They're designed to do one thing -- kill people, namely police officers."
Meehan said the company that makes the gun, FN Herstal, markets the weapon irresponsibly. ''They promote and brag that it will penetrate Kevlar," he said. ''Weapons experts agree that this particular gun is more dangerous than average handguns because of its high velocity."
But Rick DeMilt, a spokesman for FNH-USA, a US subsidiary for the gun's manufacturer, FN Herstal, based in Liège, Belgium, said Friday that the gun and ammunition it sells consumers in the United States is no more powerful than many handguns on the market.
He said that the company's more powerful gun and ammunition, available only to military and law enforcement agencies, is strictly regulated, and that his company cannot be responsible for illegal sales of the more powerful ammunition.
The company markets the more powerful ammunition as useful for ''all close combat situations in urban areas." It also advertises on its website that when using the ammunition sold only to military and law enforcement agencies, ''enemy personnel, even wearing body armor, can be effectively engaged up to 200 meters."
DeMilt says the commercially available bullets can penetrate body armor only in rare cases.
But Meehan said that was not true, and even if it were, it is not difficult for criminals to buy the armor-piercing bullets on the black market.
Meehan said the legislation he cosponsored has gone nowhere because, he said, ''the gun lobby has such a tight grip on the legislative process in Washington."
DeMilt said Massachusetts is the only state in the country in which the gun is not sold to the public, because, he said, it has never been approved here.
Three major Boston-area gun shops said the gun is not stocked because it does not meet standards mandated by the state.
Meredith Baumann, a spokesman for Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, said the gun cannot currently be sold in Massachusetts because it is not on a list of approved firearms maintained by the state Executive Office of Public Safety.
''The attorney general is eager to work with the Legislature to further ensure guns and ammunition like this don't find their ways into our community," Baumann said. State Senator Jarrett Barrios, however, said he believes that the gun is legal here, but that its magazine is not, because it is too large. Barrios said he fears the maker could reduce the size of the magazine to conform to Massachusetts laws.
Therefore, he said, he has proposed legislation to ban both the gun and ammunition here. His bill will be voted on by the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, which Barrios chairs.
''We want to make it as difficult as possible for criminals intent on harming policemen to buy a Five-Seven and then turn around on the black market and buy the cop killer bullets," Barrios said.
''All they've got to do," he added, ''is next year turn around and produce something with a 10-round clip, and you can buy cop-killer ammunition in Massachusetts."
Barrios dismissed DeMilt's assertion that the ammunition legally sold in other states cannot penetrate most body armor.
''This company says different things to different people," Barrios said.
''The fact of the matter is they market a product which they claim can pierce body armor. They can't now claim that it won't."
Internal Boston police intelligence documents said bullets used in two recent Boston shootings can pierce body armor, and suggested that the ammunition has fallen into the hands of street gangs.
''It is believed that associates from these groups are in possession of the FN Five-Seven firearm, with armor-piercing rounds, and officers should use extreme caution when approaching any of these individuals," the data say.
The Boston police commissioner, Kathleen M. O'Toole, said in an interview Friday that the FN Five-Seven is ''designed to kill people" and said she would like to see firearms more stringently regulated.
Suzanne Smalley can be reached at ssmalley@globe.com. 