# Gun standoff. Is it mutually assured destruction? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 12, 2017, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-standoff-is-it-mutually-assured-destruction/788752 "2017-06-12T04:29:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![greenmario](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/97f17d/32.png) [@greenmario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greenmario)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-standoff-is-it-mutually-assured-destruction/788752/1 "2017-06-12T04:29:07Z")
So I was thinking about a semi-common trope in action movies today. Two people are engaged in a fight and then at some point they will both find a gun and aim them at each other. Cue dramatic standoff and speeches. In most instances it seems to be understood that this is a stalemate and that one character shooting will mean both of them die. I was wondering is this realistic? Would you be able to bring someone down with you if they just blew half your face off? What if they put one or two in your chest? In this example let’s just say they are 6 shot revolvers and they are standing about 15 yards apart. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-standoff-is-it-mutually-assured-destruction/788752/2 "2017-06-12T05:13:30Z")
Shoot; don’t talk. Two fast to the center of mass and odds are even if they get a shot off you won’t be hit. At least that is what I was always taught. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-standoff-is-it-mutually-assured-destruction/788752/3 "2017-06-12T06:25:50Z")
15 yards apart is an awfully long distance for handguns in an actual fight. There is a fairly significant chance that both parties will miss the other person completely. Even a wound that is fatal is not always immediately incapacitating. I found a website that is about stab wounds, but it applies to this discussion. [http://www.classicalfencing.com/articles/bloody.php](http://www.classicalfencing.com/articles/bloody.php) People can survive–or at least not instantly die from–injuries that fiction has conditioned us to think would be instantly fatal 100% of the time. > [@](#): > > According to a seven-year study on penetrating cardiac injuries involving more than 20,000 consecutive trauma patients, the survival rate for patients who were stabbed in the heart was 32.6 percent. > **[Deadly Things You Won't Believe Most People Survive](https://www.cracked.com/article_19698_7-deadly-things-you-wont-believe-most-people-survive.html)** > > Sometimes the things that seem deadliest aren't so much deadly as they are inconvenient. On the other hand, there have been accounts of people receiving a relatively minor wound to a limb, and immediately collapsing, because they thought that that is what you’re “supposed” to do. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-standoff-is-it-mutually-assured-destruction/788752/4 "2017-06-12T11:46:32Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > Shoot; don’t talk. Two fast to the center of mass and odds are even if they get a shot off you won’t be hit. At least that is what I was always taught. You had Mrs Martin for home room too? ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-standoff-is-it-mutually-assured-destruction/788752/5 "2017-06-12T12:57:36Z")
Handguns are notoriously unreliable fight-stoppers. One shot, properly placed, will do the job. A dozen shots, improperly placed, might fail to even slow the assailant down. Because pistols have, at most, two points of body contact, and a VERY short sight radius, they’re also notoriously inaccurate in stressful situations. There is a reason so many shots fired in gunfights miss - And it isn’t (entirely) due to lack of skill; in a fight for your life, fine motor skills deteriorate, and vision tunnels in on your target, leaving you semi-blind to the rest of your environment. Your heart races, and your hands tremble. You forget important steps and fumble… It’s chaos in the mind and body. So, yeah, if you find yourself in a fight for your life, by all means, take the shot - you CANNOT guarantee the other guy won’t. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-standoff-is-it-mutually-assured-destruction/788752/6 "2017-06-12T13:08:53Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > You had Mrs Martin for home room too? Actually ---- the name escapes me right now (we just called him Wild Bill) but he was one of the PE teachers and the coach for the rifle team. Yeah – we had firearms in school back then. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-standoff-is-it-mutually-assured-destruction/788752/7 "2017-06-12T13:12:58Z")
Do those situations even happen outside of the movies? I’m not sure how easy it would be to tell, but they always seem like a highly absurd scenario to me; you’ve got two people with a gun against each others’ nose - given that(up to this point) they have been chasing each other and earnestly trying to kill one another, why are they both hesitating? I can see it as a little more plausible in the scenario variant when the guns are drawn at the escalation point of an argument - in the sense of “if this goes further, I shoot you”, but when it happens at the end of a chase or gunfight, it makes no sense at all. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gun-standoff-is-it-mutually-assured-destruction/788752/8 "2017-06-12T13:30:57Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Do those situations even happen outside of the movies? > > I’m not sure how easy it would be to tell, but they always seem like a highly absurd scenario to me; you’ve got two people with a gun against each others’ nose - given that(up to this point) they have been chasing each other and earnestly trying to kill one another, why are they both hesitating? > > I can see it as a little more plausible in the scenario variant when the guns are drawn at the escalation point of an argument - in the sense of “if this goes further, I shoot you”, but when it happens at the end of a chase or gunfight, it makes no sense at all. Rarely, I’m confident. It may be that people reach a realization that they’re about to try to take a human life - But in the heat of affray, I doubt many people will pause to reflect on the seriousness of their next act. Many peopple _won’t_ escalate in ‘cold blood’ - but once the pain happens and the adrenaline starts pumping, well, events start gaining momentum.