Rubber bullets should not be used against protesters, experts agree

As protests against police brutality — in the name of George Floyd, Breona Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others — spread across the nation, more and more people have shared pictures of their rubber bullet injuries.

When fired at close range, the force of impact from rubber bullets can be “similar to [that] of live ammunition,” Michele Heisler, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan, told Inverse.

One issue is the name “rubber” bullet. These projectiles aren’t made entirely of rubber — they often contain a metal interior.

And despite their “non-lethal” or “less than lethal” designation, studies have shown that rubber bullets can cause life-threatening injuries.

One prevailing myth about rubber bullets is they can’t penetrate skin.

This is completely wrong. “Blunt trauma can be as lethal as penetrative injuries,” Heisler says.