Failures to stop?

trusta45

I have heard stories from various sources about rounds failing to stop aggressors.Things like men being shot anywhere from 5-12 times with a 9mm and it not stopping them,I saw a story where an off duty police officer was shot in a bar by robbers one night 11 times with a .40 caliber,I saw one where a man was shot 6 times with a .357Magnum and he was still able to do serious harm to the person who shot him.My question is has anyone evr heard of anything like that happening with rounds like the .45acp or the 10mm?I know shot placement is the key but some of those failures were dead center chest shots.Even that rapper 50cent was shot 9 times and one was in his face with a 9mm.I havent heard anything like this about .45acp other than a cop firing one shot into a suspects stomach who was attacking him with a knife and the suspect was still able to fight for quite awhile.Any .45 or 10mm failures to be heard of?

rldowns3

Stopping ability has so many conditions that must be met that a lot of times it's not comprehendable. I've seen people that were one shot stopped by a .22lr and I've seen them drive themselves to the hospital after being shot with a .44 magnum. I've also seen the opposite.

It's hard to say. I was shot 3 times with a .45acp and while it knocked me on my * I was still able to come out on top with a little...ok a lot of luck, although I still live with the pain in my body several years later. My father was shot with a .22lr and he didn't even know it until he got home and noticed the blood when he was undressing.

I think there is by far less of a chance of a failure to stop using a larger caliber but nowhere is it near 100% perfect.

Of the determining factors I consider most important in if a person is to go down by gunfire, I consider body mass, shot placement, physical/mental state and whether they are on some type of drugs to be the most important factor if they go down or not. Do they have a large muscle and/or fat mass that the round must penetrate before it hits vitals? Did you hit the proper areas? Are they on an adrenalin rush and determined to get you whether they die or not? What is this person on, crack, cocaine, meth?

offeror

Absolutely. We are all children of the Hollywood myth to some degree when we first deal with guns. We eventually learn through training or experience that stopping a perpetrator is not a certain business. It is often a quick, panicky, messy business, and you can shoot someone and still wind up fighting hand to hand, or emptying all guns present (which is why it's good to run out of bullets LAST).

Keep in mind that many rounds have about the same effect as a knife -- a steel path is bored into the body of maybe 6-12 inches that messes up tissue along the way. The effect of "temporary wound cavity" is minimal until you get to rifle velocities. This is why shot placement and sufficient penetration and expansion and frangibles are so important with handguns. They are a tool but they should not be expected to "turn off" a perpretrator (unless maybe you are a sniper attempting a brain shot).

That is why we are taught to "shoot until the threat is over." And in some cases, particularly with crooks pumped up on drugs or adrenalin, it can take awhile, and one must be prepared for that sustained effort. While it's true some people will react by running away from the shots, or falling down because they are wounded, many street types these days will keep on coming and laugh until their blood drains out if no massive injury is sustained. This is probably a function of how used to guns the criminal element is becoming, compared to 40-50 years ago, and how little some of them care whether they die -- and how determined they are that you'll lose before they go.

And finally, as rldowns said, there is no question in my mind that the larger calibers and greater power factors work somewhat better, and this is corroborated by actual shooting databases. If you doubt it, keep in mind that many people have been shot in the head with .22s and .25s and the bullet has skated AROUND the skullbone under the scalp, instead of penetrating the bone. Yet the Mafia frequently used point blank .22 caliber head shots for those execution-style slayings we heard so much about. So the round doesn't always bounce off.

T. Jefferson: "[When doing Constitutional interpretation], let us [go] back to the time when [it] was adopted. [Rather than] invent a meaning [let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed."

NRA Life Member

roboman

I read a memoir of a soldier from the Vietnam war who saw one of his fellow soliders stiched with bullets from 2 separate guns. Supposedly the guy was hit with 24 or so bullets and managed to live until the morning.

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"The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long..."