Assault rifles and the Nigerian police; a match made in hell.
An assault rifle is a class of weapon that was developed in the middle of the 20th century to meet the needs of soldiers on the modern battlefield, where the level of violence had reached such heights that an entirely new way of fighting had emerged, one for which the existing weapons were a poor match.
The standard issue weapon for the Nigeria Police Force, the governmental agency responsible for the enforcement of laws, protection of lives and property is the Assault rifle “Avtomat (Automatic) Kalashnikov 47”, popularly referred to as "AK-47". The AK-47 was originally developed in the Soviet Union in 1947 and has spread around to become one of the most common weapons around the globe in the decades since. Different countries have created their versions of this rifle based on the original Soviet designs.
An Ak-47 Rifle
This gun shoots high-velocity 7.6mm caliber bullets, and has a muzzle velocity (exit speed of the bullet as it leaves the gun) of 715 meters per second. A bullet fired from this rifle covers in one second a distance Usain Bolt at top speed would take almost two minutes to run. The automatic aspect of this rifle means when the trigger is depressed and held down, it will continue to fire back to back either until the magazine is empty or the trigger is released, whichever happens first.
Not all gunshot wounds are made equal. The amount of damage done to a body by a bullet depends on many factors like the type of gun fired, the size of the bullet, and where it strikes in the body. If a typical handgun (pistol) leaves a damage of 50 on a target, an assault rifle will leave a damage of 150 on the same target from the same distance. The main reason for this exponential increase in the amount of damage an assault rifle like the AK-47 causes is because the bullets travel at supersonic speeds (almost three times faster than a pistol's) and impart more kinetic energy on the target.
X-ray showing gunshot damage from an assault rifle bullet.
When these high-velocity bullets hit a body, asides from causing large exit wounds, they often create what experts call a “Secondary Cavitation”. Usually, when bullets enter a body, they leave a path through it called the “Penetrating track injury” or “Permanent Cavity”, the size of this cavity corresponds to the size of the bullet. But with secondary cavitation, as the supersonic bullet cuts through the body, it creates a shock wave (think a speedboat on water) that ripples out, causing a secondary cavity which is often many times larger than the bullet itself.
Bruising showing secondary cavitation from a high-velocity bullet.
The secondary cavity damages tissue away from the bullet’s path and explodes organs like the Brain, Heart, Liver, and Kidneys if the bullet strikes them.
Image courtesy Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.
With an assault rifle, a shooter can cause more damage while being less accurate, and the wounds are often far more fatal. All these coupled with the fact that the AK-47 can be selected to shoot full bursts (automatic), the notorious brutality of the Nigerian police, improper training, and we have a recipe for chaos and strained citizen-police relations.
In a country where gun ownership is heavily restricted and censored, having the police's standard issue weapon (available to most officers of the force) be such a devastating weapon of war is overkill, to put it mildly. Assault rifles were developed for military use. You'd be hard-pressed to find a peacetime country with as many assault rifles available to officers at the street level outside of Nigeria. Why exactly is Corporal Tunji road on traffic duty carrying an AK47? How many situations are going to arise on that beat that will warrant the use of such extreme hardware? A lot of times in confrontation with members of the Nigerian police, their only response to any potential issue is to cock a gun at the person involved regardless of the context of events. I am not a gun owner, never even held one in my hand before but I know enough basic firearm sensibilities to never point a gun at something you do not intend to shoot. So why doesn't the average Nigerian police officer know this? What exactly is the training they receive at the Police academy? Are they taught about conflict resolution and de-escalating situations without resorting to their rifles? Is there any sort of psychological evaluation going on to screen for mental instabilities or other such things?
Nigerian police at work Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye
A report by the Presidential Committee on Police Reform from way back in 2006 recommended that the Nigerian Police reduce the number of officers on the streets carrying assault rifles. This recommendation was disregarded by the government, and that same year 80,000 assault rifles were purchased for the police. Whatever happened to stun guns, tasers, and other less lethal weapons for incapacitating people?
A taser in action Image via Reuters
How much protection are you really doing when the very tools you use are inherently so destructive? Innocent bystanders are often hit by stray bullets in Nigeria. Over the course of the #ENDSARS protests alone this past few weeks, dozens of people have been killed by bullets fired by members of the Nigerian Police and Army at peaceful protesters across the country. Even before the recent spate of protests, tales of stray bullets shot by Policemen entering homes, cars, workplaces, and snatching loved ones were plenty. Other factors play into the frequency of stray bullets in Nigeria besides just the ease of access to, or the type of gun available to the average policeman at the street level. Training is also a factor (the most important one in my opinion), just take a look at this video of Nigerian policemen engaged in a shootout. It’s so laughable one would be forgiven for mistaking it for a shootout scene from a low budget comedy movie. Alas, it isn’t funny because the impact of such incompetence is measured in lives, mostly of the innocent. The officers in the video never aimed, they just shot indiscriminately in a direction. Why the fuck won’t stray bullets be a problem when they shoot like that!
As I write this, training videos have surfaced online of the "SWAT" tactical squad that is supposed to replace SARS. The videos show more of the same old story. It's always shooting and marching drills performed by physically unfit middle-aged men. Training should be more than physical, and examinations shouldn’t be just for the sake of promotions. Do officers understand the rules of engagement? Is there accountability when an officer goes out of line? In this country, police officers would rather shoot at a crowded market than chase an unarmed suspect through it. This shows a fundamental disconnect between these officers and them understanding their roles in society.
I am not advocating for stripping police officers of tools they need to perform their jobs as some people might be beginning to think, but rather for properly equipping each squad or officer within reasonable expectations for the demands of their assignments. Every officer should not have a license to bear assault weapons.
At some point we have to weigh the pros and cons, yes these weapons are supposed to protect us and in the right situations, they can do that. But more often than not, they’re placed in situations that are doomed to fail. For the vast majority of police officers (excluding specific tactical squads) in Nigeria, having a pistol is enough for discharging their daily duties so why complicate things unnecessarily? Restricting the ease of access to AK-47s to mostly officers on violent assignments and related tactical squads is a win for everybody. Diversifying the police arsenal to include a lot more weapons like tasers, stun guns and other non-lethal incapacitation devices means officers can still perform their duties with much less maiming and extra-judicial killings. It means reduced confrontational behaviour by policemen, fewer assault rifles to worry about corrupt officers selling, fewer AKs to worry about robbers stealing from officers when they get a chance, fewer stray bullets flying around, and far less lethal, life-altering wounds when those bullets do hit.