Hollow points

Interesting piece in the WaPo on the absurd process it takes to legally obtain a handgun in DC (a process I’m about to get sucked into). I was struck by this passage:

Then there’s this bit of instruction that makes me shudder because I live in a Mount Pleasant rowhouse with neighbors on either side: Know your target and what’s behind it because bullets can punch through doors and walls.

There’s a pretty easy solution to this concern: purchase hollow point ammunition instead of the full metal jacket variety. Volokh has a good rundown on the difference, but it basically comes down to this: a hollow point bullet will, in all likelihood, not go through a wall and kill your neighbor.

Indeed, if DC was really worried about people getting unintentionally injured by handgun discharges they’d do a better job of educating the populace about the efficacy of hollow point bullets. They have better stopping power owing to the internal damage they do to whatever you want to make dead and they have a much smaller chance of killing bystanders. Considering the fact that the vast majority of people who live in DC share a wall with a neighbor, it’s just common sense.