---
title: "Researchers: Rubber Bullets Often Cause Death, Permanent Injuries"
description: "Claims that rubber bullets are nonlethal or less lethal than other forms of ammunition don't hold up to scientific scrutiny."
date: "2020-06-05"
modified: "2020-06-05"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/rubber-bullets-cause-death-permanent-injuries"
categories:
  - "Health & Medicine"
  - "Medical"
  - "RX and Medicine"
tags:
  - "medicine"
  - "military technology"
  - "rubber bullets"
---

# Researchers: Rubber Bullets Often Cause Death, Permanent Injuries

![Claims that rubber bullets are nonlethal or less lethal than other forms of ammunition don't hold up to scientific scrutiny.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/rubber-bullets-cause-death-permanent-injuries.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Chris Huggins via Flickr\</em\>*

The justification for [equipping police](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/deadly-military-tech-ended-police-hands>) with rubber bullets is often that they're "non-lethal."

But rubber bullets are extremely dangerous, *[Inverse ](<https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/rubber-bullets-cannot-be-used-safely>)*[reports](<https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/rubber-bullets-cannot-be-used-safely>), and a [growing mountain](<https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(02)08708-1/fulltext?cc=y%3D>) of evidence clearly demonstrates that the plastic-coated ammunition can [permanently maim](<https://www.nature.com/articles/6700447>) and kill people just like any other bullet.

A [massive review study](<https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/rubber-bullets-cannot-be-used-safely>) published in the journal *BMJ Open* in 2017 analyzed 1,984 rubber bullet injuries, *Inverse* reports. Among the people struck by rubber bullets, 300 ended up with permanent disabilities and another 53 people died.

"Blunt trauma can be as lethal as penetrative injuries," Michele Heisler, a University of Michigan medical professor and the medical director of Physicians for Human Rights, told *Inverse.*

During recent and ongoing protests, police have aimed rubber bullets at protestors heads and throats — a practice that can rupture eyeballs and shatter bone, which is what happened to [journalist Linda Tirado](<https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/i-came-cover-aggression-minneapolis-then-i-became-victim-it-ncna1221241>), who permanently lost vision in one eye after being shot with a rubber bullet by police.

Moreover, police are using them in the most dangerous way possible.

[Guidelines suggest](<https://www.geneva-academy.ch/joomlatools-files/docman-files/Geneva%20Guidelines%20on%20Less-Lethal%20Weapons%20and%20Related%20Equipment%20in%20Law%20Enforcement.pdf>) aiming rubber bullets at legs or bouncing them off the ground to reduce their impact, but even these indirect shots have permanently injured and killed people — especially because a bouncing bullet is so difficult to predict.

"When they are fired at close range, the levels of lethality and patterns of injury of many types of \[kinetic impact projectiles\] are similar to those of live ammunition," Heisler told *Inverse*. "Most simply cannot be used safely against crowds."

Heisler added that kinetic impact projectiles like rubber bullets "can hit people at the same impact as live ammunition."

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)