baton rounds
Baton rounds or kinetic impact projectiles are bullets that are designed to cause pain in victims. Despite their marketing as “less lethal” these bullets can cause severe injury or death. Some baton rounds are designed to be fired from regular firearms, and others for use with specialist riot guns which resemble shotguns or grenade launchers.
Baton rounds come in many varieties, including but not limited to:
Rubber bullet - These bullets are either rubber or metal coated with rubber which can be used with regular firearms. Police may also fire larger cannisters containing multiple rubber balls which are fired from riot guns (1).
Plastic bullet - Made of plastic or a combination of plastic and aluminium which can be fired from regular firearms or a riot gun.
Beanbag round - Shotgun shells consisting of a fabric bag filled with lead shot.
Wooden bullet - Initially made from cut up broom handles, modern purpose-built wooden bullets are fired from riot guns.
Foam/sponge baton round - Large foam projectiles fired from a riot gun.
Pellet - Small rubber or lead projectiles fired from an air gun.
Attenuating Energy Projectile (AEP) - A variation of the plastic bullet with a hollow crumple zone to spread the force of the impact, designed to be fired from a riot gun (2).
a brief history of baton rounds
Baton rounds have a noteworthy place as a weapon of choice in British colonial history, particularly in the violent control of populations in colonised Asian countries and in Northern Ireland. For example, in the late 1880s British colonial police in Singapore used improvised wooden bullets against protestors (3). They later used wooden bullets in other colonies such as Malaysia and Hong Kong. Rubber bullets were developed by the British Army for use in Northern Ireland, where they were first used in 1970 (4). The bullets were designed to be shot at the ground to bounce up at people’s legs, but they were often fired directly at victims, at point-blank range.
Plastic bullets were developed to replace rubber bullets and were first used by the Royal Ulster Constabulary in 1973, completely replacing rubber bullets by 1975. In total 17 people were killed by rubber/plastic bullets during the Troubles, 8 of whom were children (5). In 2013 declassified papers from the British Ministry of Defence showed that they were aware that the bullets were more dangerous than they publicly admitted. The Ministry settled a case with a 10 year old boy who had been blinded, in order to prevent information about the bullets’ danger from coming to light (6). In 2005 modern Attenuating Energy Projectiles replaced plastic bullets in Northern Ireland (7).
The use of baton rounds did not stay relegated to British police, and the technology was exported to other authorities. For example, during the 2019 Chilean anti-austerity protests, police officers deliberately fired pellets into the faces of protestors causing hundreds of people to lose their eyes (8). Amnesty International has mapped the “problematic use of kinetic impact projectiles in 20 countries from 2018-2023 (9).
dangers of baton rounds
Baton rounds frequently cause serious injuries including bone fractures, open wounds, blindness, internal organ damage and death (10). The bullets can cause severe injuries if fired at close range because they have not lost speed, and at long range they are harder to aim so are more likely to accidentally hit a sensitive area or the wrong target (11).
Data on injuries caused by baton rounds is hard to gather because victims may not present themselves to hospitals, and police or military records are not always open to the public. The largest analysis reviewed 26 studies, including 1984 people who had been hurt by baton rounds. Of those 15% were left permanently disabled and 3% were killed (12).
countermeasures
Baton rounds are among the most dangerous “less lethal” weapons: If police are firing into a crowd it’s best to take cover or flee. Protective gear like helmets, groin cups and improvised shields may help. Some baton rounds can penetrate regular goggles but ballistic goggles may protect eyes (13).
references
(1) Stinger (defence-technology.com)
(2) Maguire, K., Hughes, D.M., Fitzpatrick, M.S., Dunn, F., Rocke, L.G.R. & Baird, C.J. 2007, ‘Injuries caused by the attenuated energy projectile: the latest less lethal option’, Emergency medicine journal : EMJ, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 103–5
(3) What Are Rubber Bullets? (slate.com)
(4) CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1970 (ulster.ac.uk)
(5) CAIN: Issues: Violence - List of People Killed by 'Rubber' and 'Plastic' Bullets (ulster.ac.uk)
(6) Rubber bullets: Army kept real dangers in NI hidden - BBC News
(7) Revealed: Police plans to fire rubber bullets in London | The Independent | The Independent
(8) ‘It’s Mutilation’: The Police in Chile Are Blinding Protesters - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
(9) Global: Dozens killed and thousands maimed by police misuse of rubber bullets (amnesty.org)
(10) Omega Foundation & Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission 2003, Baton rounds: a review of the human rights implications of the introduction and use of the L21A1 baton round in Northern Ireland and proposed alternatives to the baton round, Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, Belfast
(12) Haar, R.J., Iacopino, V., Ranadive, N., Dandu, M. & Weiser, S.D. 2017, ‘Death, injury and disability from kinetic impact projectiles in crowd-control settings: a systematic review’, BMJ Open, vol. 7, no. 12, p. e018154