Lots a talk on these news shows (which are BTW excellent places to learn about firearms) about frangible ammo.  How effective is this stuff?  I always thought it was more of an ammo designed for indoor ranges to minimize lead in the air and prevent richochets.

Didn't they used to call these "cop killer bullets"?

yep designed just to kill cops.

There are several types out there, but mostly used to prevent missed shots from killing innocent bystandards in an ajoining room, or ricocettes(sp). The glasers, and some that are pressed powder copper are examples. If they hit a solid, like a door or sheet rock, they are supposed to break up so it won't make it out the other side.
There are several variations on preventing over penitration, and wall penitration, like the plastic ammo that you could almost catch at 50 yards.

But exactly how much damage do they do to a human target? (Non Cop target, because apparently they are copkillers)

There's a difference between "frangible" and "pre-fragmented".  The frangible stuff is usually powdered metal that has been pressed under great pressure.  Upon impact it reverts back to dust.  "Pre-fragmented" stuff is like Glaser Safety Slugs or Triton ammo - consisting of a jacket that contains a number of smaller pellets.  The energy of the individual pellets is quite small, but the total energy of the projectile is significant.

Frangible ammo would cause a pretty severe surface wound, I'd expect, but minimal penetration.  Pre-fragmented stuff is designed to give reasonably good penetration on a body, but to dissipate energy quickly in the event of a miss.  Missing in an aircraft, however, will probably mean you hit someone you didn't intend to.

I'm kind of interested in the very-high velocity nylon or teflon rod bullets that were described in [u]Unintended Consequences[/u].  These sound like the ideal close-quarters cartridge in a .44 or .45 caliber revolver out to about 10' (I wouldn't want to take a longer shot in the fuselage of an airliner anyway).  

Learn something new. I thought the intent was the same though.
But for your high velocity ammo polymer look here
http://www.rbcd.net/

read up here:
[url]http://www.firearmstactical.com/briefs5.htm[/url]

scott out