Ares45, if that is what you believe, that is great, but you need some work on your anatomy. I have yet to see a person described that suffered brain trauma via a bullet and still managed to function normally or at all. There have been cases of folks having bullets skirt the brain inside the cranium that were not greatly affected, but those didn't do damage to the brain. Heck, Clyde Barrow's brother had a chunk of skull knocked out of his head and had exposed brain showing. The insult apparently resulted in his need of help for a get-away, but he was able to battle law enforcement again some days later where he survived more shots, and then died several days later.
Pray tell, given your statement that,
As far as tennis ball sized brain stem I'm quite aware that it's much smaller. Just making the point that a human uses roughly 15% of his/her brain to function. Blowing away the other 85% could statisticly proove pointless.
just exactly how do you perceive of folks being able to blow away the other 85% of the brain without hurting the critical 15%?
Surely you don't think that the brain stem is what is responsible for the 15% of the brain that is used and the rest is just fluff?
Oh hey, maybe you could explain how it is that brain trauma not involving the brain stem can be so damaging to a person's ability to function or survive?
Are we fooling ourselves in that we can make shots under stress that we really can't make? That all depends on the training of the person. One thing I know for certain is that folks who don't train for difficult shots are not likely to be successful in attempt difficult shots for the first time under stress.
Probably the best recent and video-documented example of this came from the north Hollywood bank robbery. Within minutes of the first shots, it was determined that the bad guys were wearing "heavy armor" and that the officers needed to aim for the head, to make head shots. During the initial 25 minutes or so, the closest officers were at about 50 yards. The officers often shown in the intersection with civilians and bleeding were at about 75 yards from the bad guys. At the time, LAPD did not regularly train their street officers at distances over 25 yards and certainly didn't train them to make head shots with pistols at distances of 50, 75, or greater yards. After the battle, no officers landed a single head shot even though they knew they needed to his the robbers in the head to stop them.
Did adrenaline affect the officers' abilities? Probably. Of course, the fact that the officers probably had no clue as to how much drop their slugs would cover at those ranges or how to lead a moving target at those ranges, and how to aim to hit a target that was likely seen as smaller than the width of the front sight of their pistols would have figured substantially into the problem.
Once again, nobody is aiming for just the brain stem and the brain stem isn't the only vital portion of the brain.
I DO see the point. I just don't believe that 2 to the chest means an automatic transition to the head. Quite a few people are still walking around after being shot in the head and even brain. A shot in the skull may be just as fruitless as the two in the chest. If you're not aiming for immediate incapacition why take the chance on a much smaller moving target?
People are around after being shot in the skull and in the brain, but most didn't function too well at the time of the event.
Nobody said it had to be an automatic transition after 2 shots, but the claim is made that if the desired result isn't attained in two shots, then several probably won't produce the result needed for an immediate incapacitation.
Who says we would not be aiming for immediate incapacitation? Geez, if I have already shot an attacker twice in the chest and the attacker is still advancing on me, why would I NOT want immediate incapacitation of him?
You are welcome to think that people can't make CNS shots under stress. However, just because you think we can't certainly has no bearing on reality. If you can't make the shot, that is fine. You can shoot where you want.
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In regard to pelvic shots and stopping locomation, folks often don't understand the biomechanics of a pelvic failure. At least at 2 gun schools I have attended, I have been instructed to shoot the person in the hip and the instructor reaches down and taps his hip bones. What was tapped was the outer edge of the ilium which is the iliac blade. It is a source of attachment of connective tissues and providing support for your organs, but a shot there isn't all that likely to result in a collapse of the pelvis even if a chunk is broken off. That part of the pelvis isn't under the locomotor stresses that other parts are such as the pubis, ischium, or the ilium close to the acetabulum.
On the History Channel, there was a great image of an innominate (1/2 of the pelvis) recovered from one of Custer's men. It had a great big .50 cal hole through it. Because of the location and medicine of the day, it was deemed a fatal shot since the large intestine would have been involved, releasing its contents into the body and producing sepsis, if the soldier lived that long to die of sepsis, but that didn't happen. The shot was to the pelvis and the soldier probably went down, but he didn't go down because of a failure of the pelvis because the pelvis structure didn't fail.
The example given is how old ladies fall and break their hips, that is what happens when you shoot a person in the pelvis. This is not appropriate. "Old ladies" who fall and break their hips more often suffer from osteoporosis and what actually happens is that they have a bone structural failure than results in them falling. It may be that the femoral head (ball) breaks off at the neck from the shaft of the femur or that part of the acetabulum (socket) gives way and the bone punches through the medial wall or breaks through a side of the socket. The experience is hugely painful and when it happens and because of the aspect of osteoporosis the fall may cause further damage to the pelvis or femur.
So shooting below body armor or in the area of the pelvis may produce a stop and maybe produce a drop of the bad guy, but it probably won't be the result of a breaking of the pelvis. Of the pelvis isn't broken or there is not a mechanical failure of locomotion, than the bad guy may soon recover from the initial insult, get up, can continue. He may or may not survive in the long term, but in the short term further attention may need to be given to assure than he doesn't have a chance to cause more harm.
Also, shooters who go down because of locomotor damage or simply due to soft tissue insult and who are not unconscious may very well continue the battle from their immobile location on the ground. Just because a person drops does not mean they are out of the battle.
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