# Can bullets knock people down? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 5, 2012, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564 "2012-08-05T23:19:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2012, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/21 "2012-08-06T22:29:59Z")
If you get hit with a baseball or a bullet, for God’s sake don’t rub. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2012, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/22 "2012-08-06T22:39:32Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Can a bullet knock you off balance? I suppose it could. But if you shoot a 100 pound pig carcass, it doesn’t fly backward several feet, or even several inches. It just sits there. If the pig was still alive it might lose its footing and fall down. But that’s not because it was hit by a blow that knocked it back several feet/inches. > > Even if you’re shot by a 50 caliber BMG you don’t fly backwards. Your body just gets shredded. Remember that every joule of energy that goes into shredding tissue is a joule of energy that isn’t going to knock the target backward. > > A tiny little tap might cause someone to lose their balance and fall down if they aren’t balanced right. Human beings are constantly adjusting their balance and any interference in the process can cause them to fall over. But the person falling might just as well fall to the side, or towards the path of the bullet, rather than away. People are sometimes knocked over when they fire guns, so it’s pretty easy to imagine that someone might lose their balance when they get shot. But that’s not the same thing as being blown backwards by several inches. Like I said, shoot a pig carcass with a variety of ammunition, and see if it is knocked backwards by several inches. You’re describing the difference in the concepts of ‘knocked over’ here. Standing people are precariously balanced. It doesn’t take much to knock someone over if they can’t catch themself and rebalance. For a person standing on the balls of their feet, draw a line from one foot to the other and apply some force at right angles, and they can be pushed off balance easily. A pig carcass is like someone sitting on the ground, it takes a lot more force to move something like that. ---
**Author:** ![FuzzyOgre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@FuzzyOgre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuzzyOgre)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/23 "2012-08-07T00:03:33Z")
Answered to death already, but here is the simplest way of looking at it. The resistance of the body to penetration is far less than the resistance of the body to being lifted off its feet. You can test that on a shooting range. Get yourself a (unfrozen) boneless roast, mark it with an X. Place it on something larger than a fence post(so it cannot roll off), and mark that with an X too. Line the X’s up. Shoot it with something large calibre. If it is still intact, I bet you it hasnt moved. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/24 "2012-08-07T00:13:07Z")
> [@FuzzyOgre](#): > > Get yourself a (unfrozen) boneless roast, mark it with an X. Place it on something larger than a fence post(so it cannot roll off), and mark that with an X too. Line the X’s up. Couldn’t you just use a big glob of marmite instead of ruining a good roast? ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/25 "2012-08-07T00:23:42Z")
Knock down is seen often enough with metallic silhouettes. A near-perfect inelastic collision, not involving animal propensities during trauma such like unconsciousness, weakening of the knees, losing one’s balance on the lurch, etc. Animal carcasses and cuts of roast have other uses. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/26 "2012-08-07T00:32:46Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > But again, their bodies gave no visible sign of having been shot. If you didn’t know better, you’d think they just crumpled to the ground for no reason. One of the things that made the opening battle sequence to “Saving Private Ryan” so stomach-turning and creepy was that it was the first big time Hollywood war movie I can think of that showed soldiers just dying and crumpling up, rather than flying backwards like acrobats, when they were fatally shot. It seemed, well, real, and it was one of the things that made it so horrible to watch. Which of course was the point. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/27 "2012-08-07T01:01:53Z")
Very few got knocked down in the Combat series too, as far as I can remember. But I do remember one film footage in Nanjing wherein Chinese men were shot by Japanese soldiers from behind with bolt action rifles: hands tied and kneeling, the bodied curving deeply forward from the force of the shot and the head snapping back, before they crumpled and slid down the ditch. So there, a possible knock down, had they been standing. But by unified rules, a man on his knees is considered knocked down. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/28 "2012-08-07T01:06:26Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > People falling down when they get shot comes from other things. A part, such as a knee with body weight on it, that is vital to standing, may be shot. A person may fall simply because the body part is no longer able to support the weight. > > However, a second cause of falling, and quite possibly the bigger cause, is simply the result of people thinking that they’re SUPPOSED TO FALL. After all, that’s what the movies show. In other words, people fall when shot because they’ve been conditioned to fall when shot. The first video that **Fubaya** linked to made the point that people who are shot are likely to fall over out of sheer reflex and reaction; just like if someone whipped out a pin and stuck you with it you’d flinch back and stagger in shock way out of proportion to the amount of force applied by a pin. Someone who knows what is coming and armored so they aren’t actually hurt, won’t. ---
**Author:** ![stanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@stanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stanger)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/29 "2012-08-08T22:28:12Z")
I remember reading somewhere that the reason why people hit with an arrow, back in the old days, tended to go down was it was embedded in their mind that they WERE critically hit and SHOULD go down. Apparently, many arrow wounds were not that severe, or at least, immediately life threatening, but the psychological trauma of having that arrow and fletching sticking out of your torso was sometimes enough to make a man think he was in far worse shape than the wound produced. Maybe when a bad guy in the movie sees that near half-inch hole on the end of that .45 spit a bullet at him, he tenses up like a cat and automatically springs backwards because he is SUPPOSED to. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/30 "2012-08-08T23:23:37Z")
Okay, time for bodies to be where the mouths are. If you have been shot & survived, you do not have to play. All you other guys line up. The set: Boxing glove on a rod. You must stand with eyes closed and ear plugs in. You will be hit three times from an unknown direction & in some part of your body as a complete surprise. First blow will be with a free swinging 5 pound glove & rod at 1000 foot pounds. Next strike will be a 500 pound glove & rod free swinging at 1000 foot pounds. Third time will be a .50 round from an WW2 P-47 machine gun ( just cause it is my test & I loves me some P-47… ) into one of several steel plates taped to your body so there will be no penetration or give. The shot will be straight so there is no glancing blow. Once again, no sound or visuals, complete surprise. Who will stand up for science and do this? He he he Seems 12 Ga. bean bags knock folks down? Because they do not penetrate??? Or? If a man can stand with armor & laugh at '50 Cal pistol ammo, what size is need to knock a prepared man down against his will? What energy at say chest level assuming no penetration? What size object with a point like a 20 mm canon or a 30 or a 40 would be needed to knock him over even though there is penetration? Little skinny guy balancing on one foot vs big ugly Chicago Bears nose guard really planted on 2 feet and ready for it? Get those calculators out guys, I be real curious… ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/31 "2012-08-08T23:29:16Z")
> [@stanger](#): > > ::: snip ::::: > Maybe when a bad guy in the movie sees that near half-inch hole on the end of that .45 spit a bullet at him, he tenses up like a cat and automatically springs backwards because he is SUPPOSED to. I like the way they put up their hands to ward off the bullet when they know they are really going to get shot. ---
**Author:** ![slowlearner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@slowlearner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slowlearner)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/32 "2012-08-09T00:38:05Z")
I can just see Bambi’s daddy getting blown sideways through a plate glass window… ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2012, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/33 "2012-08-10T01:13:40Z")
> [@GusNSpot](#): > > I like the way they put up their hands to ward off the bullet when they know they are really going to get shot. Hey, even Superman used to duck when the bad guy threw the empty gun at him. ---
**Author:** ![Freakenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b782af/32.png) [@Freakenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freakenstein)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/34 "2012-08-10T19:42:40Z")
There are cases where people have seen a shooting and described how the victim flew several meters, and in the court when they have seen the security video, they have said it’s a forgery 'cause the victim just falls down. People really should be more suspicious about Hollywood. Scene: A snitch is lured into an abandoned garage, suddenly the lights are turned on and he sees six gangsters with Tommy guns and the capo he betrayed. The gunmen spray heavy .45 caliber bullets for half a minute ( that’s several thousands of them and who knows how many kilograms ) and the snitch just wriggles in one place. After the shooting stops, he just slowly sinks down to his knees heavily breathing. Then the capo shoots a single shot between his eyes with a .22 caliber pistol and the snitch flies across the room. And no-one in the production team saw nothing wrong with that. And why nobody who’s stabbed with a pencil never flies across the room? The tip is like a bullet, right? You just hit very hard and… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/35 "2012-08-11T14:58:47Z")
**Freakenstein** , is that actually from a real movie? Which one? ---
**Author:** ![Freakenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b782af/32.png) [@Freakenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freakenstein)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/36 "2012-08-11T15:30:16Z")
**Chronos** Ok, I’m not sure if I have ever seen exactly that, but many times something similar on TV. In many productions machine guns seem to be quite ineffective compared to pocket guns. ---
**Author:** ![Freakenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b782af/32.png) [@Freakenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freakenstein)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/37 "2012-08-11T17:29:42Z")
**Chronos**. Just to clarify: the ‘scene’ is just a composite. But I’m sure I have seen lots of movies and TV episodes where both types of guns are used in separate scenes with described outcome. ( I should have written: no-one in the production team sees ( or will see )… But I wouldn’t be surprised if there really is such exact scene somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/38 "2012-08-11T18:01:55Z")
> [@GusNSpot](#): > > … into one of several steel plates taped to your body so there will be no penetration or give. But this is exactly why bullets don’t knock people down - because they DO penetrate. Bullets suck at transferring their momentum to flesh. If you do figure out a way to transfer all the momentum from a bullet to a body, then you’ve probably also made the shot non-lethal as you’re using all the energy to push instead of to penetrate and tear to shreds. ---
**Author:** ![gunnergoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e95f7d/32.png) [@gunnergoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gunnergoz)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/39 "2012-08-11T18:54:25Z")
FWIW: I’ve never seen someone killed in person - let alone from a firearm - but there is a famous clip from D-Day in Normandy where what appear to be UK troops are disembarking and running up the beach and one is hit and drops like a sack of flour. Drops right down, not forward, not back. He was running forward when he was hit and there was very little forward momentum, he just dropped more or less vertically…literally all the life and energy left that body in that instant. It could be he tripped, but his movement was not natural: it was more the fall of a dead weight. The clip is played constantly in WW2 documentaries so some here have probably seen it as well. Edit: just found it here: [http://www.history.com/videos/d-day-allied-invasion-at-normandy#d-day-allied-invasion-at-normandy](http://www.history.com/videos/d-day-allied-invasion-at-normandy#d-day-allied-invasion-at-normandy) at 1:23 in the video, he will be the running man on the left side of the frame. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564/40 "2012-08-11T19:05:54Z")
The fact that bullets penetrate doesn’t make all that much difference. A bullet that ricochets off of a steel armor plate will impart more momentum to the target, true, but only by about a factor of two. So if the shooter can shoot two guns at once without being knocked over, then the shootee can take a bullet to a steel armor plate without being knocked over, too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bullets-knock-people-down/630564.md?page=3)