NPR has said in an article that one bullet from an AR-15 can completely decapitate an adult, although their claim was dismissed as “ridiculous” and “bullsh*t” by veterans.
Earlier this week, NPR ran a story focused on Eulalio Diaz Jr, the Uvalde coroner who identified the victims of the shooting at Robb Elementary School last month, 19 of whom were children.
However, within the NPR article, author Vanessa Romo wrote that the AR-15, the rifle used in the shooting, is “designed to blow targets apart,” saying that it was a “weapon built for war.” Most strangely, she claimed that “when fired into a human adult body, its bullets travel with such fierce velocity that they can decapitate a person.”
The salacious claim was repeated by the official NPR Twitter account when they posted the article on social media.
The AR-15 is designed to blow targets apart. Its bullets travel with such velocity that they can decapitate an adult.
Unfortunately, this Uvalde coroner has now seen first-hand what the weapon can do to children.https://t.co/LjxAps68UP
— NPR (@NPR) June 1, 2022
However, the Daily Caller’s David Hookstead was quick to throw water on NPR’s claims. In a tweet, he argued that the quote was simply a “ridiculous lie,” and noted that the common .223/5.56 round used in AR-15s is a “varmint round that is too weak to legally deer hunt in serval states.”
The source for NPR’s claim can be traced back to a 55-page study conducted in the Vietnam War. In the report, one Ranger was reported as having fired “an AR-15 full automatic hitting one VC with 3 rounds with the first burst,” adding that “one round in the head took it completely off.” One other quote claimed a head “looked like it exploded.”
As Hookstead pointed out, AR-15s are not fully automatic, and were not even used in the Vietnam War, with American soldiers instead carrying the fully automatic M16. “There is zero proof this is true,” he wrote.
Speaking to the Daily Caller, Delta Force Operator Bob Keller said that he had “never seen” anyone be decapitated by an AR-15, and said that the claim was complete “bullsh*t.” Former Navy Seal and the man who allegedly shot Osama bin Laden, Robert O’Neill said that it was “100% inaccurate.”
“As a former Navy SEAL who has shot people up close with something similar to an AR-15, you don’t blow their head off, it’s not how it works,” O’Neill said. “It’s a small caliber bullet with high velocity,” he added, saying that there was “no way” anybody could be decapitated by one.
Valiant News reported that Texas Democrat and gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke used similar language as NPR when calling for the confiscation of AR-15s and AK-47s from law-abiding Americans. “I think we are fools to believe anything other than that these weapons of war will be continued to be used with greater frequency against our fellow Americans,” O’Rourke said.
