Yeah. Some people are just inconsiderate.
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.
I have to disagree with this. Upward from the mouth will hit the cerebral hemispheres, probably lethal, but as non vital structures, survivable with significant debility. Too forward an angle and the bullet may just pass behind the face, not entering the cranial cavity at all. Survivable with debility and disfigurement.
Better to aim straight back into the mouth, as behind that is the brain stem. As said already, damage to that is with high probability fatal.
Apparently it does happen that way, and happens often enough with mountain climbers. It almost happened to Beck Weathers, a member of the 1996 Rob Hall Mt. Everest expedition and described very well in Jon Krakauer’s book, Into Thin Air. Weathers was laying face down in the snow on the South Col (elev. 26,000’) and dreamed/hallucinated he was with his family in sunny, warm Texas. At that altitude, people can’t pick you up and help you down, you are left on our own.
Weathers almost drifted off to die, and would have if he didn’t somehow realize that holy shit!, I’m in deep kimchi and the cavalry ain’t comin’!
When I was a volunteer EMT years and years ago, we had a call where a guy had shot himself in the mouth with a shotgun. It made a horrible mess, but he didn’t die on the scene. He was just writhing around in horrible agony and died later that night. Put that on my list of ways I won’t off myself.
Actually, that’s backwards. You are more likely to flinch at the last second with a temple shot. Budd Dwyer’s suicide shows how close he came to blowing it (no pun intended), even with a mouth shot.
The best way is to put the barrel in the mouth, pointed straight back, not upward. When the round fires, it takes out the base of the skull where the spine comes into the brain. It turns you off like a light switch.
I know people that tried both and not surprisingly, both worked.
That’s nothing. I’ve mentioned before I once read an article about a man who committed suicide with a power drill. He had to use it six times to successfully kill himself.
Now that’s willpower. I figure most people would have drilled two or three holes in their head, maybe four tops, and decided it wasn’t working and switched to another power tool.
What about putting the gun under your chin, like the warden in The Shawshank Redemption? Would the result be similar to the mouth shot? It seems like that would be the easiest place to stablilize the gun barrel: a soft spot with a triangle of bone to rest the gun between.
I just had a creepy thought: what if somebody is researching the best way to actually do it, and makes their decision based on this thread? Ew.
Why is it creepy to use this thread as research for shooting a movie scene?
I’d think you’d be more likely to just blow the front of your face off with that.
Not recommending under-the-chin. Remember the two teenagers in Nevada who shot themselves, for which their parents sued Judas Priest? One of them survived, even though they’d used a shotgun, not just a pistol.
All I have to add is a bit of trivia from a Sheriff’s dept briefing I attended long ago. Women are more likely to shoot themselves in the chest than men. They apparently feel the need to leave a pretty corpse.
Daniel Von Bargen (Commandant Spangler in Malcom in the Middle/Mr Kruger in Seinfeld) attempted suicide with a gunshot to the temple. He ended up blowing both his eyeballs out and had to phone 911 for help. I think this happened in February and there is still no update on his condition. The 911 call can be found on the internet if you search it up but I must warn you when I say how horrific it is. I don’t think shooting yourself in the head, even if suicidal, is a good idea. It’s also messed up how this guys 911 call made it to the internet, what’s privacy?
I can’t help but ask: which one did they try first?
The same happened to German general Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel who tried to shoot himself after the failed plot of July 20th 1944.
If someone wants to, then they’d choose another method if they didn’t come here.
I found a link agreeing with you. But: men are much more likely to use a firearm than women, who often choose other methods. And men are more likely to succeed in general, because of firearms and other reasons.
The aforementioned Budd Dwyer used this exact weapon, in his mouth. And although it certainly got the job done (he dropped like a stone) it did not blow the back of his head apart like you see in the movies. I’m not sure if the bullet even exited his body, which actually helps to kill you quicker, having the slug bounce around inside your brain.
A few notes for those who haven’t ever seen the Dwyer video:
Although his skull does not explode it’s still very unpleasant and graphic. Although his brain appears to turn off like a switch and he immediately falls to the floor, his heart keeps beating, causing blood to literally pour out of his nose & mouth like a fountain, and the camera has a near close-up of this.If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and don’t. Like someone else said, eww…
I worked as a hospital orderly during the summers while in high school (long time ago). Among our responsibilities was helping in the ER with beligerent folks, perform long-term CPR (chest compressions), or insert tubes in uncomfortable places.
Anyway, one of my most vivid memories from that job was the day a fellow came in who had attempted suicide by shooting himself under the chin with a handgun. I think it was a .38, but I’m not sure. I have no idea what type of bullet he used, but it didn’t touch his brain or eyes. He did take out most of his mouth and tongue, including almost all of the lower jaw. The EMT I spoke with said they found him outside of his house squirting himself in the face with a garden hose – he was trying to wash off the blood and damage he had done. Though he had to be in shock, he was in lots of pain and was tremendously agitated and confused.
He didn’t die that day, but I imagine the rest of his life was very different from the one he tried to end. I don’t know what happened to him, but it was mighty sad to see.