Which is Faster - Bullet Penetration or Pain?

[LongShot]

The only reliable shot to the head that results in death is a bullet to the medulla oblongata. This causes flaccid paralysis which shuts down the brains message system including the ability to recognize and transmit messages about pain or any other stimuli. Damage to other areas of the brain are survivable depending on the circumstances; ive never read of someone surviving direct ballistic trauma to the MO.

[James]

we had a cop here in the city get shot in the back of the head with a 5.56 round fired by a 14 year old out of a second floor window... It took a good chunk of his head off...yet he survived, spent only a year in rehab and is now working at the precinct, and is expected to be back on the road in the next year. So assuming that as soon as the bullet creates a cavity in the brain, the person will die, is a really big, and incorrect, assumption.

Spot on. The area of the brain that will cause instant death as the result of a gunshot wound is only about the size of a tennis ball, and it reaches from about the middle of the ear to the base of the neck at the bottom of the skull if you look at a side view of the human head. This is why snipers are trained to aim for the bottom of the ear or just under the nose of they're able to make a head shot. In a lot of circumstances, people with head injuries die as a result of brain swelling - Robert Kennedy might be the best known example of this. Had he been shot by a .22 in 2008 instead of 1968, surgeons might have removed a portion of his skull to allow for brain swelling, and it's entirely likely that he might have lived and recovered.

[James]

Whats the background on this video?

Sounded like they were speaking Russian, otherwise I don't know.

[ggk]

im sorry, although your post are very polite lotsoffreetime, why do you want to know? any valid reason?

[HK in AK]

@bacon,

The video was supposedly shot in Moscow, showing the aftermath of an attempted suicide with an AK-47 shot under his chin....the bullet went up and through the front of his head...

[Bacon]

@bacon,

The video was supposedly shot in Moscow, showing the aftermath of an attempted suicide with an AK-47 shot under his chin....the bullet went up and through the front of his head...

Morons. Sooo many failed suicide attempts that way...

[lotsoffreetime]

im sorry, although your post are very polite lotsoffreetime, why do you want to know? any valid reason?

Nothing but plain curiosity. Much like the question which comes first? A chicken or an egg? Just more appropriate considering the set of knowledge of the people who visits MP.net.

That being said i would like to thank you for all the answers, and for pointing out the fallacy in my assumption too.

I don't mean to be out of line, but should we really mention what is the best technique to kill a person? I'm afraid that it might give some people ideas.

[big_les]

Spot on. The area of the brain that will cause instant death as the result of a gunshot wound is only about the size of a tennis ball, and it reaches from about the middle of the ear to the base of the neck at the bottom of the skull if you look at a side view of the human head. This is why snipers are trained to aim for the bottom of the ear or just under the nose of they're able to make a head shot. In a lot of circumstances, people with head injuries die as a result of brain swelling - Robert Kennedy might be the best known example of this. Had he been shot by a .22 in 2008 instead of 1968, surgeons might have removed a portion of his skull to allow for brain swelling, and it's entirely likely that he might have lived and recovered.

With handgun velocity rounds, or even rifle rounds at range, sure. In the context of suicide though, a centrally placed contact range shot with a 'high velocity' round will lacerate brain tissue simply by virtue of cavitation, contained as it is by the pressure vessel of the skull. The shotgun with buckshot is perhaps slightly less reliable.

At the very least, you're talking instant loss of consciousness closely followed by brain death, even if clinical death is not ****ounced until later.