5 ms·
I’m for gun control, but it is important to realize that the wounds he describes could equally be made by a hunting rifle. The nature of terminal ballistics in
by IntronExon 9y ago
I’m for gun control, but it is important to realize that the wounds he describes could equally be made by a hunting rifle. The nature of terminal ballistics in this case is a function of the muzzle velocity of the round. This doctor is familiar it seems with handguns, which are generally no more than 1500fps. By contrast a hunting rifle will tend to be around 3000fps. For comparison, a shotgun shooting slugs with a heavy load might be 2200fps, but with more mass being moved. A .45 handgun will generally be less than 1000fps.
- js2 9y agoIt's the combination of high muzzle velocity with a semi-automatic weapon that is particularly lethal. If we restricted semi-automatic weapons larger than 22 caliber, that would likely greatly reduce the number of fatal injuries in these mass shooting events. It's going to slow the shooter down having to reload each shot. But: most gun homicides in America happen with handguns. So you'd be banning an entire class of weapons in order to save a relatively small number of lives. Obviously we've drawn some lines where we consider some weapons too lethal: no one gets to own fully automatic weapons. Or hand grenades. So we'd be deciding that semi-automatic high velocity weapons fall into the "too lethal" category. It wouldn't prevent mass shootings - but it would make events like Las Vegas less lethal. (Of course, there's the separate problem of preventing the newly banned weapons still in circulation from ending up in the hands of would-be mass shooters.)