Joe Biden Talks Ballistics Again, Reiterates Jumbled Claim About Speed of AR-15 Bullets

During a Friday speech to the National Education Association (NEA), President Joe Biden reiterated his jumbled claim about the speed at which AR-15 bullets move compared to bullets fired from other guns.

On August 30 Breitbart News reported Biden’s original claim that “the bullet out of an AR-15 travels five times as rapidly as a bullet shot out of any other gun.”

We pointed to a June 30 Field & Stream column on the “Five Fastest Rifle Cartridges” to show the falseness of the claim.

The Field & Stream column listed the feet per second (fps) the five fastest rifle cartridges travel when fired:

1. .220 Swift — A 40-Grain .220 Swift round moves approximately 4,300 fps.
2. .257 Weatherby Magnum — An 87-Grain .257 Weatherby Magnum round moves approximately 3,700+ fps.
3. .30/378 Weatherby — An 165-Grain .30/378 Weatherby round moves approximately 3,400+ fps.
4. .224 Clark — An 80-Grain .224 Clark round moves approximately 3,500+ fps.
5. .22 Eargesplitten Loudenboomer — A 50-Grain .22 Eargesplitten Loudenboomer round moves approximately 4,600 fps.

By contrast, AR-15 rounds move at approximately 2,700 – 3,100 fps.

In Friday’s NEA speech Biden reiterated his claim that the AR-15 bullet moves faster than bullets from other guns.

He described the AR-15 as “a weapon of war” and said, “The speed of the bullet is five times that that comes out of the muzzle of most weapons.”

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The Washington Post noted that Biden had been vacillating between two claims: 1. The AR-15 shoots a bullet that moves fives times as fast as a bullet from any other firearm, period. 2. “The most common rounds fired from an AR-15 move almost twice as fast as that from a handgun.”

The Post also noted that velocity is normally measured right at the point where the bullet leaves the barrel. But “at 100 yards, the AR-15’s velocity is only slightly faster than most hunting rifles.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.