Cynical Nation

Whether it's "assault weapons," Glocks, or teflon coated bullets, the media is perennially warning against some new firearm innovation du jour that will leave our streets littered with the corpses of dead policemen if immediate action isn't taken.

The latest entry in this series, which has inspired much breathless hand-wringing, is the Belgian-made FN Five-SeveN:

Some police in the tri-state area are urging the gun be banned out of fear it can be used to defeat police body armor. FNH does indeed claim the gun can penetrate Kevlar, but only with special armor-piercing rounds that are not available to the general public.

So why are people freaking out about the gun? My guess is because it's a companion piece to the FN P90 submachine gun, and because FNH does claim that the Five-SeveN can penetrate Kevlar with the proper ammo. Moreover, a New Jersey police officer claims to have pierced a Kevlar vest with the legally available ammo in an informal field test, although FNH disputes this claim.

They're not the only ones. I have two friends who are both Class III collectors and gun experts, and they seriously doubt there is anything especially sinister about this gun based on its spec. And Kim du Toit, who is my ultimate arbiter on such matters, was openly contemptuous of the gun long before the controversy began.

Now I'm not definitively concluding the policeman in question is wrong, but it certainly appears to be an open question. This particular weapon deserves a fair hearing, at the very least -- an impartial, duly monitored field test by independent professionals. Is that too much to ask? I realize the Second Amendment has limits, but when anyone wants to proscribe limits on a constitutional right, the burden of proof should rest squarely on the would-be regulator.

So will the Five-SeveN ever get its day in court? Somehow I doubt it. New Jersey's two senators are already clamoring for a ban (at least that's evidence that Frank Lautenberg is actually alive.) These battles are almost always waged with emotion rather than logic, and they are fought and reported by people who generally have little understanding of the subject matter. That's a shame. For the record, I consider myself a gun enthusiast, but far from an expert. That makes it all the more troubling that gun legislation is so frequently debated and passed by people less knowledgeable than myself.

Even more ominous, the manufacturer's website appears to be down. A message says the site is "under construction," but it seemed to be working perfectly well on Friday when the story broke. I hope it's just a coincidence, but something tells me it's not.