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Old December 9, 2012, 01:31 PM   #19
Frank Ettin
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Join Date: November 23, 2005
Location: California - San Francisco
Posts: 9,471
Quote:
Originally Posted by ltc444
The simple answer about stopping power is the laws of physics and the engineering works both ways.
And physiology.

The wild card will always be psychology. Often a bad guy with a survivable wound or even minor wound will give up or take off. That seems to be how the bad guy gets "stopped" by being shot in most self defense encounters. It's the times someone is sufficiently determined to fight on, no matter what and as long as at all able to, that presents the real challenge.

If the bad guy is determined, he will sometimes be able to continue to effectively fight even when mortally wounded -- as was the bad guy Michael Platt in the 1986 Miami FBI "shoot-out."

On the "good guy" side we have the example of LAPD Officer Stacy Lim who was shot in the chest with a .357 Magnum and still ran down her attacker, returned fire, killed him, survived, and ultimately was able to return to duty. She was off duty and heading home after a softball game and a brief stop at the station to check her work assignment. According to the article I linked to:
Quote:
... The bullet ravaged her upper body when it nicked the lower portion of her heart, damaged her liver, destroyed her spleen, and exited through the center of her back, still with enough energy to penetrate her vehicle door, where it was later found....
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