Max Velocity (easily one of the best nom de guerres in the shooting world) posted this video sent in to him by a reader, showing how little the most common building materials do to stop common rifle and pistol rounds (9mm, 5.56 NATO/223 Remington, 7.62 NATO/.308 Winchester, 7.62×39 Russian) fired at range of 19 meters, the statistical mean distance for urban combat shooting according to some military report vaguely alluded to in the beginning of the film.

While this is a U.S. Marine test seemingly geared at offensive force projection, it is applicable to us as civilians when planning home defense strategies. You cannot count on the thin materials used to manufacture most interior or exterior walls in the past 50 years to stop or even significantly slow most modern ammunition, so you must plan carefully where you would hope to stop a home invader so that you don’t shoot in the direction of a family member’s room inside the home, or towards other homes that are just a thin exterior wall away.