surgeon: The term "AR-15-style" is now used to refer to any rifle of that style. The original rifle was made for military use, but when the company failed to get buyers, it rebranded it for civilian use
Not sure about the above. Likely technically correct but a bit misleading. To clarify:
1 Armalite sold the rifle's design to another firearms manufacturer, Colt, in 1959. Four years later, the U.S. military selected Colt to manufacture a standard-issue model of the AR-15 — dubbed the M-16 — for soldiers in the Vietnam War.
2 The military had adopted the M14 by this stage, but they were forced to consider a request for a 5.56 cartridge [.223 and rifle just a year later in 1957. This was ArmaLite's AR-15 - the precursor to the M16.
.. these fast-moving [AR15} bullets essentially create shock waves in the body that cause tremendous damage to organs and tissue.
The shcok wave of the AR15 bullet is also known as cavitation, pressure exerted circularly/radially outward from the bullet path typically a couple inches in diameter from the bullet. Sounds awful but usually not, tho the author above is technically correct in that caviation can indeed cause tremendous damage to organs the closer the bullet path is to the organs. Thru tissue alone however, cavitation is generally not severe. If you were shot in the butt side to side, the cavitation thru the adipose (fat) tissue created by the bullet path could make you butt sore for a few weeks, but likely would not kill you, unless sepsis set in.
..shot with these [AR15] guns, the "destruction is much greater" than that caused by a handgun.
To me this warrants a 'duh'. A 22 caliber handgun bullet which generally causes the least wound damage of all bullets due its lighter weight, is essentially the same caliber as the AR15 bullet which is a 22.3 caliber bullet (known as a 223).
The differences between the 22 caliber handgun bullet & the AR15 22.3 caliber are as follows:
The 22 caliber bullet weighs between 30 and 40 grains. (29 gr for a 22 short rimfire, ~40 gr for a 22 long rimfire).
The AR15 22.3 caliber bullet weighs about 60 grains (from 55 to 62 last I heard)
The 22 caliber handgun bullet is a rimfire which takes milliseconds longer to spread result reduces explosive power compared to the AR15 bullet which is a center fire and is in a full metal jacket (fmj) shell casing resulting in rapid explosive spread & explosive power. Think of lighting a a 10 ft diameter circle of a gasoline spill from its center and then one from a side. The center will spread faster, same principle.
The 22 caliber handgun has a muzzle velocity of ~1,000 ft per second (fps). AR15 22.3 muzzle velocity ~3,000 fps.
Kinetic energy (KE) formula is KE = 1/2 x mass x velocity squared
22 caliber handgun bullet KE = 1/2 x 40 grains x 1,000 fps x 1,000 fps = 90 ft lbs
22.3 AR15 bullet: KE = 1/2 x 60 grains x 3,000 fps x 3,000 fps = 1200 ft lbs
The AR15 bullet has about 13 times more kinetic energy when it hits the target. An order of magnitude higher (10x).
Neat bullet energy calculator: https://www.larrywillis.com/bullet-energy.html
The primary reason for the AR15 bullets higher kinetic energy is its velocity, since 3k squared is 9m, while 1k squared is 1m, and 9 million is 9 times greater than 1 million.
The AR15 bullet also has (or at least had) a cannelure around it not quite at the middle, which is simply a light scoring slice around it which tends to enable the bullet to fragment into two as it hits a body, causing two bullet paths either of which can cause severe damage, and doubles the chance of this.
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