I recently read an account of a police shooting involving a gang member and an officer. The officer scored a number of hits in the initial burst of bullets and reported that the attacker "withered" and fell to the ground.
That's a fairly encouraging thing to see when you're in a gunfight. Especially if, as the officer was, you've been injured.
But that wasn't the end of the gunfight. The attacker, after lying motionless for a brief period, recovered, lifted his head and gun and tried to shoot again. The officer fired additional shots, ending the encounter for good.
It struck me that this is actually behavior that we should expect.
I have an acquaintance with chronic low blood pressure. The condition is bad enough that the attending cardiologist recommends that the person eat a high salt diet. "Salt your food heavily." is the advice. When there are acute problems with low blood pressure, the person is told to lie down and that will bring on a recovery shortly.
When a person "withers" in a gunfight, one of the possibilities is that this is occurring due to massive blood loss which causes a corresponding drop in blood pressure. When the person falls to the ground, they are, in effect, "lying down" and they may recover either fully or partially after initially lying motionless.
Now, I am NOT advising people to keep shooting an attacker who is motionless on the ground; that is obviously legally problematic. However it does appear quite reasonable to expect that the attacker could experience some level of recovery after lying on the ground for a short time. Don't get complacent just because the attacker has fallen to the ground.
That's a fairly encouraging thing to see when you're in a gunfight. Especially if, as the officer was, you've been injured.
But that wasn't the end of the gunfight. The attacker, after lying motionless for a brief period, recovered, lifted his head and gun and tried to shoot again. The officer fired additional shots, ending the encounter for good.
It struck me that this is actually behavior that we should expect.
I have an acquaintance with chronic low blood pressure. The condition is bad enough that the attending cardiologist recommends that the person eat a high salt diet. "Salt your food heavily." is the advice. When there are acute problems with low blood pressure, the person is told to lie down and that will bring on a recovery shortly.
When a person "withers" in a gunfight, one of the possibilities is that this is occurring due to massive blood loss which causes a corresponding drop in blood pressure. When the person falls to the ground, they are, in effect, "lying down" and they may recover either fully or partially after initially lying motionless.
Now, I am NOT advising people to keep shooting an attacker who is motionless on the ground; that is obviously legally problematic. However it does appear quite reasonable to expect that the attacker could experience some level of recovery after lying on the ground for a short time. Don't get complacent just because the attacker has fallen to the ground.