# Gun based suicide Temple vs Mouth **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 15, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605 "2012-08-15T20:57:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/41 "2012-08-17T01:49:01Z")
I thought the in the mouth method was aiming for the “apricot”, the part of the brain behind the nose that snipers aim for to knock people out immediately. Relevant to the thread on whether people have enough reflexes to pull a trigger after being shot in a standoff. ---
**Author:** ![G0m3r619](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@G0m3r619](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0m3r619)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/42 "2013-04-16T11:43:54Z")
> [@sachertorte](#): > > I doubt there is a factual answer, but here is what I’ve heard. I’ve been told that a temple shot is better for suicide as it is more foolproof. Gun in the mouth is more likely to not kill you or not kill you _right away_. Miss the brain and you’re in for a whole lot of distress. > > (1) Don’t shoot yourself – at all. > (2) If you must, don’t shoot yourself in the mouth! Actually putting the barrel of a high caliber hand gun in your mouth pointed slightly up will be like switching off the lights. The bullet will destroy the portion of the brain that controls things like breathing and heart beating as well as consciousness. It’s also where most of the big veins are that feed the brain with blood. It’s essentially instant death. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/43 "2013-04-16T12:10:50Z")
[Herbert Sobel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Sobel#Later_years), who was portrayed as the unpopular commander of Easy Company in _Band of Brothers_, tried to shoot himself after the war using the temple method; but he only managed to blind himself by severing his optic nerve, and spent the rest of his days being cared for in a VA hospital, where he eventually died of malnutrition. ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/44 "2013-04-16T14:02:15Z")
I heard that a .22 is good for a suicidal head shot because the bullet has enough power to get into the skull, but not back out again, so it just bounces around inside. Any truth to this? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/45 "2013-04-16T14:57:24Z")
The Russians, with their work cut out for them in the Revolution and Civil War, quickly found firing squads to be sloppy and time-consuming, so they developed the same method still used today: a bullet fired almost point-blank into the base of the skull, with the victim bowing his head. I suppose a person using both hands could do this to himself. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/46 "2013-04-16T15:17:22Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > The Russians, with their work cut out for them in the Revolution and Civil War, quickly found firing squads to be sloppy and time-consuming, so they developed the same method still used today: a bullet fired almost point-blank into the base of the skull, with the victim bowing his head… And here’s the guy who did much of the killing for Stalin; you can find quite a few of the grim details in this bio: [Vasily Blokhin - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Blokhin) ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/47 "2013-04-16T15:24:57Z")
> [@BurnMeUp](#): > > (possibly starting with Lethal Weapon?) In the 1949 movie\* Adam’s Rib\*, Spencer Tracy stuck a revolver in his mouth. Being a prank (the gun was made of licorice), this was played for laughs. However, it’s interesting that they shot the scene that way, rather than, say, having Tracy bite through the gun’s chamber or grip. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/48 "2013-04-16T21:36:55Z")
I once asked a cop this very question, and he told me the best place to shoot a gun to kill anyone is the base of their neck in the front. It pretty much blows the head to smithereens. ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/49 "2013-04-16T22:10:20Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I read somewhere, long ago, that the most pleasant way of killing yourself (weather permitting) was just going out and lying down in a snowdrift. After the initial pain of getting too cold, you just drift off and die. Dunno if that’s true. Better than that is a [suicide bag.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_bag) Either a plastic bag or gas mask with pure nitrogen. You just fall asleep. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/50 "2013-04-16T22:18:35Z")
> [@flight](#): > > Better than that is a [suicide bag.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_bag) Either a plastic bag or gas mask with pure nitrogen. You just fall asleep. Interesting - never heard of that. How does the nitrogen get in the bag, or what’s to prevent it from rushing out? ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/51 "2013-04-16T22:23:08Z")
> [@echo7tango](#): > > Christine Chubbuck - that was a long time ago, 1974, and I had to look that up. Shot herself on her own live TV show. Brutal. > [(Her suicide, on Wikipedia)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Chubbuck#Suicide) The slick part about her suicide was her having written her own shooting and rush to Sarasota Memorial into the script she was reading from, which was then actually read. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/52 "2013-04-16T23:29:00Z")
What about the method of a character in the movie _Sin City_, shooting yourself right between the eyes with a pistol? It’d be slightly awkward but seems more fatal than the temple. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/53 "2013-04-17T01:17:51Z")
Most the brain up top and front is used for thinking. Most of the stuff down below and back is for staying alive. Botch the first one and you’ll live but have an unpleasant life. The eyes are close enough to be level to your brainstem. The question is whether you trust a handgun caliber, most of which do not have good penetration, to pass all the way through skin, bone, and brain and reach the back. ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/54 "2013-04-17T03:53:46Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Interesting - never heard of that. How does the nitrogen get in the bag, or what’s to prevent it from rushing out? If it is a mask, you hook it up to a nitrogen cylinder like you would normally do with an oxygen cylinder. If it is a bag, you just run a line from a nitrogen cylinder set slowing release gas. It is meant to leak out as fast as it comes in. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/55 "2013-04-17T04:08:40Z")
[Dave Duerson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Duerson#Death) shot himself in the chest – he wanted his brain preserved so it could be used for medical research, to study the effects of concussion and head trauma. So I guess there’s a way to do it. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/56 "2013-04-17T04:32:27Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > [Dave Duerson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Duerson#Death) shot himself in the chest – he wanted his brain preserved so it could be used for medical research, to study the effects of concussion and head trauma. So I guess there’s a way to do it. Also more recently, [Junior Seau](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_Seau#Death). Don’t want to hijack, but it seems that shot to the heart is a rare way to kill yourself. Is it less instant? Easier to screw up? In my experience, most people think the heart is more lateralized than it really is, but otherwise, I’m not sure how it would turn out. I’ve only worked with a few brains, but I guess this kind of injury does not require a short post-mortem interval? ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/57 "2013-04-17T08:08:04Z")
My, but suicide is gaining steam as a SDMB topic. For firearms: Forget long arms, unless no option. I have it as, as long as you keep the muzzle pointing toward the rear of the head - IOW - put the thing IN your mouth, not just up to it - you ain’t taking a sip of Chianti, here folks - so at least 2" are behind your libs, the mouth will guide the muzzle to the medulla - as pointed out, the primary target. This is what police and military snipers aim for (destroying it precludes any post-mortem twitch). It is also what the Chinese Captain who executes the condemned aims for - have victim kneel before you, point at base of skull. no muss. The other (no-wonder-you-don’t-see-it-on-TV) method is the assassin’s technique - a .22 into the eyesocket. It is a sub-sonic round, so is quiet, and the bullet is not powerful enough to exit the skull - it just bounces around, reducing the brain to so much swiss cheese This is one that is NOT a DIY - you’ll flinch; the bullet may mess up memory/speech/other desirable stuff while tipping off the PTB that you must be locked up “for your own good” I wonder if plastic surgeons would sew a small baggie of phenobarbital just behind the navel - a quick razor and the dose is in your digestive tract. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/58 "2013-04-17T08:33:47Z")
The Sec. Navy who killed himself when a service insignia for Vietnam was found to be incorrect shot himself through the heart, I believe. (Didn’t read upthread, sorry.) ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/59 "2013-04-17T08:51:53Z")
> [@echo7tango](#): > > …And, please drape several towels over your head so you don’t spray too much blood and brain matter on my ceiling and walls. > > Better yet, take it outside. > [@TriPolar](#): > > Yeah. Some people are just inconsiderate. > [@echo7tango](#): > > True enough. Where I live it happens once or twice a year on the local commuter train tracks. The train conductors have to get counseling because they see the whole thing. > > Very inconsiderate, and this time I’m not being tongue-in-cheek. Allow me, as someone who has been through the madness of intensive, active suicide planning, outside of and inside of hospital walls, to add this note. Worrying about leaving a clean corpse–that’s a chick thing?, mentioned down thread–is one idea, but not for me. I just wanted to be considerate (hi \*\*TriPolar!\*\*and not have my wife come home to carnage; hell, I felt bad about the hotel maids (in other fantasies). As a shrink drily pointed out, she would have other things on her mind. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605/60 "2013-04-17T09:45:50Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > My, but suicide is gaining steam as a SDMB topic. Just fighting ignorance. With a gun. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-based-suicide-temple-vs-mouth/631605.md?page=4)