grobin said:
mikld the reality is unfortunately not what you think. Yes there is "stopping power that is a weapon which when fired in the general direction of the BG is guaranteed to kill. It's called a Davy Crockett (there are other less extreme examples). I ran a guy who was shot in the shoulder (medial to the joint and inferior to the clavicle) with a 12ga slug. Normally that would be expected to do significant damage. He was out of the hospital in two weeks. I've seen a bunch of center of mass shots which were survived-one was a 50BMG @ ~100yd. A few areas are pretty much guaranteed to kill or invalidate instantly: throat, center of the head or eye, knee, .... There are others which will kill or incapacitate but more slowly, maybe not at all no matter what caliber is used.
Those examples are certainly possible.
#1 describes a shot that punched a hole in the upper lobe of a lung and being a 12 gauge slug, didn't fragment and just punched through. It went under the subclavian artery, lateral to the aorta and superior to the heart/aortic arch (if it was on the left side). They guy probably broke a rib or two, had a unilateral pneumothorax, and a pulmonary contusion. Roughed up for sure, but as long as he didn't take hours to present to care, survivable.
#2 describes what is nearly certainly a .50 caliber non-expanding bullet wound. Unless it hits the heart, brain, spine, or a major artery, the victim will more than likely survive unless EMS is remote or delayed.
The areas where a shot can kill quickly (~5 minutes or less) are:
1. A transverse through-and-through shot through the skull.
2. Disruption of the spinal cord from the brainstem to the C3 body. (Remember the mnemonic- "C3-4-5 keeps the lungs alive" as they innervate the diaphragms.)
3. Penetration of the heart.
4. Penetration of the great vessels of the thorax- aorta, subclavian arteries, and vena cava.
5. Transverse shot through the thorax causing a double pneumothorax ("double lung shot.") This is difficult on a human as most humans are shot anterior-posterior (facing forward) and it would take two shots (one in each hemithorax) or use of multiple-projectile loads (buckshot) to accomplish this. Humans also have arms that are lateral to the lateral chest walls and one of them must be penetrated to enter the thorax laterally to attempt a double-lung shot, so even if somebody was facing 90 degrees away, it would take a relatively powerful round to traverse the thorax and drop both lungs.
Everything else is a slower to kill wound, and if EMS is quickly alerted and nearby, the victim often survives. Unless they're dead, blinded, or unable to use their hands, they are not completely incapacitated and can shoot back. Shooting somebody in the eye tangentially (seen it, a failed "9 mm to the chin" suicide attempt) will not kill them. Neither will getting shot in the knee or lower leg (have seen that too.)