“… she’s not merely dead
She’s most sincerely dead”
Coroner of Munchkinville (played by Meinhardt Raabe) describing the (now diseased) Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 feature film, The Wizard of Oz
Of Bullets and Consciousness
We work with many physicians, including ER doctors, trauma surgeons, and MEs, who have examined/treated multitudinous GSWs, mostly from handguns. Some suicides, but many are officer-involved shootings where well-trained officers used modern pistols and modern, high-performance ammunition (mostly 9mm)
From talking with these doctors, and also from talking with many others who have been directly involved in lethal-force incidents, and relying on my own personal experience, I am persuaded that the highest percentage of fatalities occur when the head, neck, and/or center-upper chest are struck and adequately penetrated. The closer to the body’s midline, the higher the likelihood of the person shot not living through it. In the industry, it known as “center-punched”
Among Operators, there is little doubt that the foregoing is true.
But wait, there’s more!
When someone needs to be shot, it is because he represents an immediate, deadly threat to innocent people, and the situation is otherwise not satisfactorily “resolvable” without someone responding without delay, with deadly force.
There is general agreement on that too!
We talk a lot about our application of deadly force likely having a fatal outcome (see above), but using the term, “fatality,” is imprecise and often misconstrued.
Given the foregoing, our definitive goal is rapid “deanimation” (“incapacitation” if you prefer) of the threatening suspect, which may, or may not, ultimately result in his death.
In less flowery terms, we need to incisively “stop the threat,” as fast as possible, so that severe injury to innocent people is avoided, or at least limited.
The question is:
Is rapid threat deanimation best accomplished via the infliction of wound(s) that we know will most likely be fatal?
The answer to that question is almost certainly, “Yes!”
But, there’s more.
After the ineluctable rapid blood-pressure drop caused by our bullets impacting/penetrating (shredding in the case of high-performance ammunition) the supply-side of the threat’s circulatory system, he still has five to fifteen seconds of oxygenated blood left in his brain!
That translates to maybe twenty seconds of mostly conscious animation of the part of this “fatally-wounded” threat.
With any luck, he will consume that “consciousness interval” (probably his last) running away and harming no one.
On the other hand, he may aggressively continue in his efforts to kill you until the instant there is insufficient oxygen remaining in his brain for him to sustain consciousness.
In many cases, the “fatally-wounded” threat crumples to the ground, only to reanimate and jump back to his feet several seconds later!
Either way, we don’t get to know until is actually happens.
And, if you’re wondering is there is a point lurking in all this:
When we use our pistol to shoot someone (for good cause), we have to be prepared to continue to shoot him so long as he continues to represent an active threat, and we have to be extremely cautious about approaching “fatally-wounded,” “dead,” or “downed” suspects.
Don’t relax too soon!
There is a good chance he is not nearly as “dead” as you think, as we see!
/John
