GatorFarmer
Member
Supposedly only several types of relatively rare and exotic 7.62x25mm rounds will reliably penetrate a quality IIIA vest.
Federal regulations only regulate bullet construction (i.e. no steel cores) in terms of restricting AP handgun rounds and not velocity or mass. Some people use plastic sabots and then handload an SS109 type 5.56mm projectile, though these would probably be problematic for feeding.
State law of course can vary related to AP rounds.
Vests aren't per se common in terms of criminal misuse, but aren't unknown either. Lots of people other than LEOs wear them. I've been wearing one for years dating back to my slumlording days. They're something of a status symbol for drug dealers as well. Ironically, I think that trend got started on the West Coast, though homemade vests - truck tires, newspaper/phonebooks and duct tape - apparently showed up on the East Coast for some time and earned the nickname "New York Vest".
One California LEO officer I talked to, some years back circa 2000, had obtained a long barreled Springfield Armory .45 Super pistol for personal use owing to concerns of the local miscreants having armor.
Some level II vests apparently had issues with stopping hot .357 Sig rounds and IIA vests were even more problematic. This gave birth to the special threat level II vests and also to more and more users just moving up to IIIA.
If nothing else, all that is worth noting simply owing to the number of people (mostly LEOs) who end up shot with their own gun and worth planning accordingly if one is using a .357 Sig pistol and also wearing armor when selecting what vest to rely on.
