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Look at Type of Bullet Used by Sniper
Aired October 21, 2002 - 12:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to bring in retired Sergeant Major Eric Haney, who's a founding member of the Delta Force, a CNN analyst right now, the Army's elite counterterrorist unit. When we take a look at that .223 round, the bullet in this particular case that's had so much attention, you take a look at that, Eric Haney, and you see the size of it. We're looking at that in comparison to a quarter, it can still cause an enormous amount of damage. Obviously, it can kill people, but even if it just penetrates the body a little bit, it does enormous damage, doesn't it? It's a powerful bullet.
SGT. MAJ. ERIC HANEY, (RET.) U.S. ARMY: Well, it certainly is. It's very small. And the .223 refers to the diameter. It's .233 inches in diameter. It's a small projectile, 63 grains, or 55 grains, for those who can weigh that out. But it leaves the muzzle of the rifle at a tremendous velocity, 3,250 feet per second. So it packs an enormous amount of energy into that projectile, and when it hits a human body, it dumps all of that energy. It's almost explosive on its impact.
BLITZER: Who would pick a bullet like this to go ahead and start killing people?
HANEY: Someone who wanted the right kind of weapon to use for this. It's lightweight. It has little recoil. It's extremely accurate, and it's the same thing the military uses. It's the same caliber as the M-16. But the military just calls is 5.6 millimeter, same bullet.
BLITZER: Is it sound like someone trained in the military or is somebody who's is a wanna-be, wants to be a sort of professional sniper?
HANEY: It's a wanna-be, I can tell you this, and that was one of the early indicators. The military for sniper missions uses a different caliber. It's a .30 caliber rife, and there are just a whole lot of other reasons why they go about that, but this is the same kind of rifle, or a similar rifle, that the military uses, the soldiers use, an AR-15, or the M-16, and I would not be surprised to see that these round were fired from an AR-15, which is the civilian semiautomatic version for that rifle.
BLITZER: Eric Haney, thanks for that insight. Stand by, we'll be coming back to you obviously as well.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 21, 2002 - 12:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to bring in retired Sergeant Major Eric Haney, who's a founding member of the Delta Force, a CNN analyst right now, the Army's elite counterterrorist unit. When we take a look at that .223 round, the bullet in this particular case that's had so much attention, you take a look at that, Eric Haney, and you see the size of it. We're looking at that in comparison to a quarter, it can still cause an enormous amount of damage. Obviously, it can kill people, but even if it just penetrates the body a little bit, it does enormous damage, doesn't it? It's a powerful bullet.
SGT. MAJ. ERIC HANEY, (RET.) U.S. ARMY: Well, it certainly is. It's very small. And the .223 refers to the diameter. It's .233 inches in diameter. It's a small projectile, 63 grains, or 55 grains, for those who can weigh that out. But it leaves the muzzle of the rifle at a tremendous velocity, 3,250 feet per second. So it packs an enormous amount of energy into that projectile, and when it hits a human body, it dumps all of that energy. It's almost explosive on its impact.
BLITZER: Who would pick a bullet like this to go ahead and start killing people?
HANEY: Someone who wanted the right kind of weapon to use for this. It's lightweight. It has little recoil. It's extremely accurate, and it's the same thing the military uses. It's the same caliber as the M-16. But the military just calls is 5.6 millimeter, same bullet.
BLITZER: Is it sound like someone trained in the military or is somebody who's is a wanna-be, wants to be a sort of professional sniper?
HANEY: It's a wanna-be, I can tell you this, and that was one of the early indicators. The military for sniper missions uses a different caliber. It's a .30 caliber rife, and there are just a whole lot of other reasons why they go about that, but this is the same kind of rifle, or a similar rifle, that the military uses, the soldiers use, an AR-15, or the M-16, and I would not be surprised to see that these round were fired from an AR-15, which is the civilian semiautomatic version for that rifle.
BLITZER: Eric Haney, thanks for that insight. Stand by, we'll be coming back to you obviously as well.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
