.38 spl for self defence? man shot 5 times in face lives

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Let's see the toxicology tests on the perp. The 38 Special started to be labeled inadequate for self defense when recreational drug use became more popular and more potent drugs became available.
 
Never seen a person shot in the face, but I have seen many elk and deer shot in the face by hunting rifles up to .338 win mag run for miles with their bottom jaw or nose blown off!

If the perp in this case was hit from the side and through the mouth and jaw area, he could have been shot with a .50 AE and still survived.

As said earlier, we don't know the whole situation, so we can't say .38 spl is a bad defensive round.
 
Tony Montana was shot several times by AR15's and AK47's without going down. It wasn't until he was shot in the back with a shotgun that he finally died.
 
Does anyone know exactly what type of loads this person was using? I can't imagine getting hit in the face with a +P level cartridge and not get at least a concussion even if the bullet didn't penetrate bone.
 
A local priest has a huge ragged star shaped scar that covers most of the right side of his face. I asked one of his parishoners what the story was there.
When a child the priest had been shot in the back of the head by one of those south american death squads and thrown in a mass grave. He crawled out of the grave and was found in time for his life to be saved.
The star shaped scar was the remnant of the exit wound, the bullet coming out just below the right eye.

Unless theres enough hydraulic shock to turn the brain to mush, the most common cause of death from a wound to the brain or brain case is hemoraging that has no easy exit. Blood builds up in the brain case crushing the brain tissue.
Since so little of the brain's mass is actually used, much of it may be destroyed without causing death or permanent disability.
Some functions of the brain may shift to surviving otherwise unused brain cells.
A few people have survived removal of one half of their grey matter and recovered completely.
If a very important junction of ganglia is destroyed thats a different matter.
 
As someone who does know anatomy, I'm fairly sure I could could shoot anyone, with just about any reasonable pistol caliber, on purpose, five times in the "face and neck area", and leave them alive and conscious. A little adrenalin to take care of the pain, you'd still be able to run away no problem. Think about it from that end and it doesn't become about the caliber does it? :D
 
Nanuk, I believe that story in "Street Survival" has been pretty well debunked over the years. The actual shooting involved an armed perp on PCP who charged at the officer's car after a traffic stop. The officer emptied a 12 gauge loaded with OO buck at the suspect. That's 45 pellets with 33 hits. He was probably dead with the first blast but his momentum carried him forward and the officer did what he should have. He kept shooting! Calibre Press either got it wrong or the story was related to them incorrectly. I used to teach officer survival in our academy and in-service sessions and I used excerpts from this book for instructional purposes.
 
If you have been around the gun world for any amount of time at all, you will soon learn that there are no absolutes in shootings. Caliber, placement, none of it. I personally know a man who received 3 .45 kits to the head and was found wandering along a road in Texas. He certainly survived but his long term memory was affected, as well as the number of holes in his skull...nothing more. I have read accounts of people who died from a .22 round in an extremity and died "apparently" because they thought that's what a gunshot victim is supposed to do. Its all baloney, it sells guns and ammo, makes experts out of a lot of us, and creates endless conversations on the internet. I'm convinced that you and I will die at an appointed time and nothing will prevent or extend it, although I'm also convinced that many gunshot injuries make death out to be a bargain....Sandpiper
 
Definitely A+++ for marksmanship, or maybe instinct shooting although not everyone turns into Annie Oakley at 2 yards or whatever. I guess that's why COM training is so popular. I simply must believe the .38 spl will do more damage in soft tissue. That point about punky ammo is probably right on. There's a lot of really low pressure loads in the commercial world. For what it costs, it should be righteous.
 
I have personally dealt with humans who have blown half of their skull off with a self inflicted 12 ga, had their crainum split 50/50 with a machete, had an entrance and exit would through the head, chest or abdomen with everything from .22 to .38 to .45 to 30-06, and had their entire body crushed from the chest down in an MVA. I was able to converse with every one of them. In some cases, they were screaming and hurt like hell, other cases they didn't know they'd been hit.

I've also dealt with people who have died from bee strings and knife wounds to the bicep.

There's just no way to tell.

Stop the aggressor. It's up to him to die or not.


Sgt Lumpy - n0eq
 
As others have stated in various ways - - - we don't have enough info to know what happened. There is so much misreporting today, that I don't even trust that a 38 Special was used. We don't know barrel length, type of ammo, exactly where the shots went and at what angles. A snub nose J frame shooting FMJ target loads is a much different animal than a service size revolver firing premium hollow point jacketed or lead +P ammo. Especially so at 'inside your house' distances.

In any case, the woman and the gun did what was required - - - stop the bad guy from harming them.
 
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There was a high school kid 5 years ahead of me in school who ran into an unmarked length of rebar. It went through the middle of his forehead and out the back of his skull and 55 years later he is still alive. The human body is weird. A few years after that a small child emulating the 3 stooges on television hit his father in the temple with a toy hammer made out of hard rubber and killed him instantly. You never know what is going to punch your ticket.
 
Yes one can get shot many places in the face and neck and not die. And lots of bullets ricochet off the skull!! My wife, being a ER, CV OR, and Trauma 1 nurse has seen many gunshots. Quite a few head shots ricochet off the skull.

So the moral of the story.. she should have had a 12 gauge.

Deaf
 
So the moral of the story.. she should have had a 12 gauge.
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Why should she have had a 12 gauge? she stopped the attack with what she had. Why does everybody have to have a body? Why should she have to live with the fact she killed a man and have to live in the house where she had to clean up his remains? Why are you so eager to have body bags filled? Is killing people a hobby of yours, do you get all excited when you hear about dead people with their brains scattered all over the place? Is that what you want your children to live with?
 
Any firearm is better than no firearm.
The larger the caliber, the better.

The argument the 9mm, .38, .380 rounds are just as effective as .40, .44, 45, etc is silly. No, all rounds do not kill at all times.

But if you know a bad guy is coming though the door and two firearms are on the table next to you, one a .38,9mm,or .380 & the other a .40, .44, or .45, which will you grab?

But again, the weapon did the job. She and her children are safe.
 
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