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The ability of a defensive bullet, especially handgun bullets, to penetrate various barriers commonly encountered in shooting events, expand and meet FBI penetration standards after the obstacle, is of great importance to law enforcement/military concerns. Selecting ammunition that gives you a performance edge at home and around automobiles can offer a definitive defensive advantage to the civilian gun owner, as well.
Originally designed in the mid-1980's to assess the above qualities of a bullet/cartridge intended for law enforcement use, the FBI standard barriers incorporate materials to simulate (by using the real barrier materials attached to a sturdy frame) : the wall of an interior room, the wall of an exterior room, a car door, and a car windshield at various angles, as well as other commonly-encountered pieces of cover.
While criticized by some for not being 'real world' enough, the FBI standards provide what I will call a 'realistic worst-case scenario'. Your situation might be worse than those simulated in the tests - but it will probably be a lot 'better'. In an effort to analyze the expansion ability of some common civilian defensive handgun ammunition, tests have been setup to utilize every piece of the FBI barrier tests - the only exception being water used in place of ballistic gelatin. This allows us to get more data out on a wider range of bullets than would be possible with the usage of ballistic gelatin.
.45ACP and .380ACP against interior wall
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