M1Marty, I was talking about including a hostage style standoff, where shots thru glass, window treatments, maybe some other household items might be in the way. The .308 has been proven by SWAT and HRT teams as the round they prefer to end hostage/barricaded man etc situations. I was trying to find my old manual that listed several failures of .223/5.56 rounds to end a fight IMMEDIATELY in such a situation. The need to sever the CNS with no ability of the hostile to detonate, pull the trigger, whatever, after the shot, has pretty much mandated the use of the .308 (or larger) round for that use. The .223/5.56 will kill with a head shot, most of the time, but it has not always been able to cut the power instantly like the .308 does, especially when confronted with stuff in the way.
My statement was based on watching people get hit from short barreled 5.56, hearing first person accounts from those who have had the option, and dealing with 30 years of reloading and ammunition experience. When hamstrung by a very short barrel, most loads for the M4 platform lose out to a MP5/10. A couple of the TAP rounds struggle to break 2500 FPS and one does not break 2400 when fired from an 11.5 barrel. A 75 grain bullet at 2400 Fps has less than a thousand Ft/Pd's of energy at the barrel, a 180 grainer at 2000 has double the energy, and keeps more energy better than the 75 grainer out too 150 yards.
Ballistics is a very complex issue. A .223 bullet designed to hold together at 2800 to 3000 FPS and yet give satisfactory expansion, simply acts like a FMJ at 2200 fps. It drills a small hole. No massive wound channel, No spectacular exit wound, often they can be deflected by bone in the body. Likewise, any bullet designed for rapid expansion at 2400 fps, is going to self-destruct when hitting something with heavy resistance.
THis has been the bailiwick for years of the best engineers in the realm of bullet design. This gives us the Nosler partition, the Barnes X bullet, the Safari A-frame, and many many others, How to design a single bullet that will perform from Muzzle to 500 yards, at speeds from 3600 to 500 fps.
Other points to ponder are using rifle cartridges in supershort barrels does not somehow invoke mystical powers on the projectile, It knows not where it came from, only that is X caliber, traveling at Y speeds, and with a BC of .ZZZ. When you lengthen pistol barrels, and fire them at velocities far above the expect for the caliber, likewise those bullets often perform very poorly. For several years, Remington offered a full house JHP 240 grainer that worked wonders when fired from 6 to 8 inch barrels of model 29's and SBH's. However reports were heard where a perfect shot on a deer left that deer up and walking around, but with HUGE gaping surface wounds, What the common denominator was, was people shooting those handgun rounds out of Ruger .44 carbines and the new Marlin 1894's chambered the same. Why? it was simple, from a handgun, the muzzle velocity was 1450 or so, but from a carbine, the MV was up near 1900 FPS and the bullets were acting like varmint bullets, when they hit a hard bone like the blade or shoulder of a deer, they were acting like a prairie dog bullet and just coming apart.
If I was confined to a .223 type weapon for police work, I would really want to make sure that the ammunition I was supplied was going to work at the velocity I was able to make out of my weapon. Just shooting it at the range does not count. I keep hearing talks of ballistic gelatin, but that is a homogenous medium. People are not homogenous. I would only trust my life to rounds that I can see what they have done to living things. I load my home self defense gun with nosler partitions, as they have never failed me, every one i have recovered looks like an advertising picture, nice perfect mushroom with most of the weight retained. This is on animals shot at near spitting distance to close to 275 yards, about the range I call it quits on when shooting game. Hunting prairie dogs I can and have shot much farther, for many reasons. A wounded prairie dog does not cause me to stay awake at night wondering what I did wrong. A lost prairie dog does not cost me a tag. And most often, you get second or third chances at a prairie dog, miss the first time and you can try again.
My opinions are based on having experienced a lot, listened to people who are there or just got back and lots of experience. They are just my opinions, but i feel pretty confident in them...
I am not saying that Campus Cops should go unarmed, The Original post was leading me to believe that the officers agency was handing out M4's or similar to its officers. I stated that in my mind, they were not needed in my experience and that there were better platforms available. To me there are three niches for long guns for police, the drawn out hostage event, the invading shooter(s) or the home invasion warrant search. In a drawn out hostage event, my choice still stands, an accurate .308 in a trained team's hands. In a warrant search or invading shooter scenario, I think history will show a 12 ga shottie or a short hard hitting subgun will work better.