A Medical Perspective on Ammunition and Lethality

Here’s a look at the perspective of a medical expert on ammunition and lethality in relation bullet caliber, weight and velocity. Violence is not something that waits for politics. Education is politicizing the need to provide emergency care by denying the reality. People are shot and wishful thinking won’t stop them. For the most part, blood loss from gunshots and stabs is treated in the same manner. The bullet is a fully extended all-copper,.45 ACP Barnes bullet and the knife is an MTAC Northman. Gietzen is an expert and educator on trauma care. She has seen thousands of gunshot injuries in Michigan’s worst areas and is trying to get tourniquets and other bleeding control kits near every building. Accuracy is a matter of practice. Cosmetic choices are almost irrelevant. The gun must function as a baseline. What about bullets? It is worth asking why reliable bullets aren’t more prominent. The bullet is what really matters. Gietzen said that there is a lot of science involved in creating projectiles with superior performance. Rapid exsanguination (blood death) is what causes death. A head or central nervous system hit does not guarantee instant death. Despite what you may see in movies, there is a high survival rate for wounds to extremities. Death increases the closer you are to major arteries. The groin, armpits, or major artery in your torso are the most dangerous places to hit. Gietzen said that this bullet was fired into gel. It’s also not true that it causes more bleeding because it’s only one wound. We end up leaving the bullets in the body in many cases.” Gietzen said, “When it comes multiple injuries, there is no real case that more bullet holes in more places causes more bleeding.” Even if a person is shot once, they may not be able to bleed externally. A majority of the blood in the body can be held within the pelvis. It’s not unusual for a gunshot victim or victim to lose up to 40% of their blood and still survive. There is no way to determine how much blood a person will lose, or how it will be affected by larger or smaller shots. Shooters often use rifles in mass causality events. The damage that a bullet causes to humans is less dependent on velocity or mass. Columbine was not a place where an AR-15 or AK-47 was used. It was a combination of pistol-caliber guns with a shotgun. Two pistols were used in the Virginia Tech shooting: a.22 LR 9mm and a.22 LR 9. The shooting resulted in 32 deaths and 17 injuries. 32 people were killed and 17 others were injured in the shooting. It is difficult to maintain accuracy with a complex expanding bullet, especially when it is moving at slower speeds like the.300 BLK. Is it more deadly than a FMJ or a FMJ? It’s difficult to say, as expanding bullets aren’t widely used in warfare. “We start treating the most serious injuries first. Gunshot injuries are not something that every hospital can handle. The medical community is heavily pushing for bleeding control, such as tourniquet application or wound packing. Stop bleeding and survival rates will increase.” How important is it to be able to control bleeding in these situations? Gietzen provided me with documentation from the Berkley et al Journal of Trauma (2008), which indicated that four out of seven deaths in modern combat in Iraq could have been prevented by early tourniquet use. The document also stated that 4 out of 7 deaths could have been prevented if tourniquets were used early. Although they chose to remain anonymous, their information was not conclusive as to which calibers were more efficient. Although not all bullets are found, it is important to note that there was no consensus on which calibers were more effective. There was no correlation between bullet type and death. Another way to put it, hollow-points are no more effective in practical applications than FMJs. The Black Hills HoneyBadger bullet line is notable. It features solid, non-expanding hollow-points that are more effective in practical applications than a FMJ. This means that there is no mechanical expansion and no clogged hollow point. These bullets can reach almost any vital area from any angle, and they have a weight retention of at least 100 percent. This beautiful, expanded all-copper,.45 ACP bullet was made into gel. It’s not common to achieve a perfectly symmetrical expansion in real life. This makes it difficult to gauge effectiveness when even a Tshirt can hinder it. The.45 ACP has never struggled in hardball, and it’s difficult to gauge effectiveness when complex bullet types are involved. Based on my experience and the opinions of professionals much smarter than I, most bullet designs have less impact on lethality than where the bullet goes. Shot placement is the most important factor in lethality. It doesn’t matter what bullet type or caliber was used. This may seem obvious, but it is not. In the meantime, a bleeding control class will be invaluable. It will be far more useful if the worst happens than deciding between 9mm or.45 ACP. Lindsay Gietzen is a professor at one of the most prestigious research universities in the world. She specializes in educational evaluation and simulation. She is also co-director of AVERT, the Health and Safety Institute’s simulation and educational evaluation program. She is also the co-director of the AVERT program for the Health and Safety Institute. Target grids and bullseye sizes can be downloaded in MOA. This is a great option for long-range shooting. Enter your email address below.