From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The flexible baton round is the trademarked name for a "bean bag round", a type of shotgun shell used for non-lethal apprehension of criminals.

A flexible baton round is the trademarked name for a "bean bag round". The flexible baton round consists of a small fabric “pillow” filled with #9 lead shot weighing about an ounce and a half. It is fired from a normal 12 gauge shotgun. When fired, the bag is expelled at around 70-90 meters/second; it spreads out in flight and distributes its impact over about 6 centimeters² of the target. It is designed to deliver a blow that will cause minimum long-term trauma and no penetration but will result in a muscle spasm or other reaction to briefly render a violent suspect immobile. The shotgun round is inaccurate over about 6 meters, has a maximum range of around 20 meters, and is unsafe to use from less than 3 meters. Changes to the bean bag round since its inception in the early 1970s have included a velocity reduction from 400 to 300 feet per second [1] as well as a shift from the square shape to a more rounded sock shaped projectile. [2].

Shotguns dedicated to being used for bean bag rounds are visibly modified with either yellow or green markings or bright orange stocks and stops to avoid the possibility of a user loading lethal munitions into the weapon or vice versa

"Bean bag" rounds are used when a criminal is a danger to himself or others. 50% of cases are when the assailant has a bladed weapon. Nearly half of the uses also involve a suicidal and armed individual. Bean bag rounds have caused around a death a year since their introduction in the US [3]

A flexible baton round can severely injure or kill in a wide variety of ways. A baton round can hit the chest, break the ribs and send the broken ribs into the heart. This is why many officers are taught to aim for the extremities when using a bean bag round. Fatalities are occasionally the result of mistaking other shotgun rounds for bean bags.[4]

Bean bag rounds have been used in many movies and a few TV shows. They are usually portrayed as an always safe non-lethal weapon.

In the movie "The Rundown", the protagonist is shot with flexible baton rounds to subdue him.

In a scene from "Jackass: The Movie", Johnny Knoxville is shot in the stomach with a bean bag round.

In one episode of the television show 24 Jack Bauer uses a bean bag round to subdue a terrorist.

In the movie "Inside Man" bankrobbers are dressed identically to their hostages so the police decide to use bean bag rounds and shoot everyone.

In the movie "The Last Castle", beanbags are used to keep prisoners under control and in one instance even to kill a prisoner by a shot to the head.

• http://www.s-t.com/daily/10-98/10-27-98/a01lo006.htm
• http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/206089.pdf
• http://www.policeone.com/writers/columnists/SteveIjames/articles/118328/
• What's a Socklike Projectile? Slate, May 7, 2007.

• Non-lethal force