How many gun shots can a person take without dying?
Depends - is he the one shooting the gun or the one being shot?
It would depend a lot on the caliber, and (just like in real estate) location, location, location. I knew a guy who sustained five shots from a .38 to the torso, but they missed all the vital stuff, and he survived. On the other hand, a .22 to the right part of the brain or heart can be instantly fatal. It would also depend on how soon the victim could get medical care. Even a rather minor wound, if left untreated, could be fatal due to blood loss or infection.
Any reason you ask?
It really depends on too many factors to say with any accuracy.
Like neenah said, it depends on calibre and where you got shot.
Usually one shot to the head will do it, or two to the body.
It just depends.
The most times I’ve ever heard of a guy getting shot and living is 6 times.
“Winners never quit and quitters never win, but those who never win and never quit are idiots.”
Did you know that neither neenah nor I misspelled calibre?
You can spell it either way!
well, if you take a 14 guage shotgun to the head, definately. LOL
But, a small .38 calibre to the leg won’t do much damage, again, accuracy is BIG problem…
While the calibre has some bearing on the severity of a ballistic injury, the most important factor is the speed of the projectile, because that determines the quantity of kinetic energy.
Kinetic energy = 1/2 mass x velocity squared
This means that when you double the speed (velocity) of a projectile, its kinetic energy is quadrupled.
The kinetic energy of a bullet directly influences the extent of cavitation that occurs when it passes through flesh. A large bore bullet moving relatively slowly packs less of a punch than a small bullet travelling much faster.
When a high speed bullet enters flesh, it creates a circular shock wave that radiates out from the entry site, creating a transient cavity by displacing affected tissue. Debris sucked into the wound by the transient vaccuum can lead to later infection, if the victim survives.
As an example, the standard NATO 7.62mm round when fired from a typical SLR causes cavitation of about 300mm. Just place a circle of this size anywhere on your chest or abdomen and see if it can possibly miss a vital organ such as your liver, spleen, kidneys etc…
Hollywood has got a lot to answer for…
Knock softly but firmly, 'cause I like soft firm knockers…
There was a case I remember a decade or so ago where a man charged a police officer, who shot him 9 times with a 9mm handgun. The assailant kept coming and managed to inflict severe stab wounds on the cop. He then started to run away and finally collapsed after running a hundred yards or so. Can’t remember if he lived or not.
Small caliber handguns really don’t do a whole lot of damage. Even if they hit a critical organ like the heart they may just put a small tear in it and the person can live with surgery. With a small caliber bullet that doesn’t cause hydrostatic shock, you’ll only die if a vital organ is hit hard enough to stop it from working, or from blood loss, or infection.
I seem to recall reading about a person shot 14 times with .22 bullets and being out of the hospital in a few days. Most of the wounds were to his extremities, with only 2-3 in the torso and none of those in critical areas.
My wife has treated several people who tried to commit suicide by putting a gun to their head and pulling the trigger. A couple lobotimized themselves but lived, and a couple others never did much damage at all.
If only it were as simple as any one thing. The importance of “hydrostatic shock,” “cavitation,” “energy transfer,” etc. are all given different weight depending on who you ask. I recently read where nothing except blood loss matters, even though empirical evidence indicates it’s possible to kill someone faster with a bullet than severed carotid arteries. Check this out for a very brief overview of the largest empirical study of bullet effectiveness I’ve heard of, then visit the main page for some more stuff.
It won’t answer your question (as mentioned previously, that’s simply not possible) but it’ll give you and idea of how complicated it can be.
I lead a boring life of relative unimportance. Really.
The link above is a dead link. Here’s the link InutilisVisEst wanted to give:
http://www.evanmarshall.com/towert/strasbourgoverview.htm
Louie: young guy, possibly a bit green, but smart as paint. - Greg Charles
This column contains some relevant info:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_203b.html
“No,” he replied, and smiled seraphically, as was his wont.
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- As already said, it depends on where one is shot. There have been children who have died after being shot with BB guns, usually in the front of the skull (where the BB passes into the brain) or in the back near the spine (where the BB passes between ribs into the heart). - A few years back in St Louis, a gang-banger type guy died from a shootout with police. The guy had three bullets inside him from past shootouts with other gang members, and one more from the cop he last got into it with. When the medical examiners did the autopsy, they found two more bullets inside him. - On the other hand, I also remember a notorious drug-dealing fellow that lived in East St Louis. He weighed 700 pounds or something like that- he had been shot eight times, but none of the bullets hit anything vital. He ended up dying of a heart attack. - MC
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In the James-Younger raid on Northfield, MN, Cole Younger took eleven bullets, recovered, and lived another 40 years.
(I do not know if any of the “bullets” were shotgun pellets; they are generally reported as bullets.)
Tom~
Re NATO rounds: I remember our middle school history teacher, who was in the National Guard, telling us that some bullets used by NATO weapons had some kind of “tumbling” effect that would ensure their capability of taking an enemy’s arm or leg off.
Being middle school students, of course, our reaction was, cool!. But was it true?
DHR
Zero.
Doghouse Reilly wrote:
Re NATO rounds: I remember our middle school history teacher, who was in the National Guard, telling us that some bullets used by NATO weapons had some kind of “tumbling” effect that would ensure their capability of taking an enemy’s arm or leg off.
Being middle school students, of course, our reaction was, cool!. But was it true?
______________________________________________ During the Vietnam vs.USA conflict, it was said that the M16’s rounds would tumble is flight, thus causing greater damage to the target. It’s untrue. A friend of mine with a more-than-healthy obsession for guns and their details told me tumbling in flight would make for very poor accuracy. However, the M16’s bullets were pointy, so if they struck bone in the target, they tended to change direction instead of taking a straight path through the chap you shot. Sometimes the new path would be more deadly than straight, sometimes not.
DHR
AskNott
"Measure twice, cut once. Dang! Measure again, cut again.
The French sociologist / political philosopher / madman (take your pick) Saint Simon shot himself in the head six times. He lost an eye, but lived for a number of years afterwards.
I read in a gun magazine a few years ago about two cops who shot a crazy hopped up crack head freak 33 times with his 9mm before the guy went down. It was in whatever gun mag that publishes short synopsies about people who legally use their guns to save their lives or property every month. American Handgun, or something like that. Maybe Gun and Ammo. I’m really not sure.
–Tim
We are the children of the Eighties. We are not the first “lost generation” nor today’s lost generation; in fact, we think we know just where we stand - or are discovering it as we speak.
As I recall, early M-16’s had fewer rifling turns in the barrel, and the bullets would sometimes tumble. Later versions tightened up the rifling to make the bullets more stable. However, I think they were designed to be marginally stable so that they would tumble on impact.
Louie:
Thanx for the link fix.
This recent thread dealt with tumbling bullets.
Interesting lethality note:
When designing the (unfairly maligned) Black Talon pistol bullet (in 10mm), Winchester took the evolving design out to hunt whitetail deer. Their rationale: the deer are similar to human body mass and “flight response,” meaning the ability of the animal to run away with a lethal wound before actually dying from it. They wanted the round to stop someone NOW, not after he closes the distance between you and stabs you in the heart.