# Getting shot with a gun in the brain

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-shot-with-a-gun-in-the-brain/641144>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 15, 2012, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-shot-with-a-gun-in-the-brain/641144 "2012-11-15T23:32:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Capt\_Kirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@Capt\_Kirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt_Kirk)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-shot-with-a-gun-in-the-brain/641144/21 "2012-11-17T01:00:16Z")

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I have a few things to add

As I understand it, agencies like the Mossad have assassinated people by using a .22 to the brain. The idea is the bullet bounces around the brain cavity and tears it up.

On the other hand I shoot a .40 cal with personal defense rounds, they split and mushroom on impact with a little pike to grab the meat and carry it on its path out of the skull. Massive hydrostatic shock and tissue loss. A solid hit is probably a fatal one.

I came out of the ER after a car accident and saw a guy who had been shot at point blank range with a .375 magnum and the bullet skipped off of his skull. It split his scalp open and he was telling the story holding a big wad of gauze on his head.

The point being that there are a wide set of variables, but I think that if you damage the Medulla Oblongata you are toast, Doc’s?

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