Wash Post – Larger Caliber Guns More Likely To Kill – IOTW Report

Wash Post – Larger Caliber Guns More Likely To Kill

JAMA has released a study on shootings in the Boston area and The Washington Post is all over it. While The Post does admit in paragraph three who and where most of the shootings used in the study occurred (criminals in the intercity) the article focuses on the size of the bullets fired. The conclusion, the larger the bullet the more likely to cause injury and death.

The Post saves the objective of both the study and article for the last paragraph. “The probability of death is connected to the intrinsic power and lethality of the weapon… That suggests that effective regulation of firearms could reduce the homicide rate.”  More

 

46 Comments on Wash Post – Larger Caliber Guns More Likely To Kill

  1. It’s a well known and well documented fact that a .22 rimfire is one of the most deadly rounds. If it enters a chest cavity it doesn’t have the energy to punch through so it ricochets from rib to rib until it scrubs it’s energy. Turning internal organs into a slur-pee.

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  2. Their hope is that they can pass laws taking away large caliber weapons first, then work their way down when banning those don’t affect the murder rate until you’re only allowed to own a Derringer.

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  3. Years ago in Colorado a policeman was shot point blank by a 357 and survived. The gun was up agains’t his jaw and the slug didn’t have time to accelerate. Did a lot of damage but he lived. Not always the size of the gun.

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  4. Caliber matters? The “largest” of their “large caliber” rounds, the 7.62×39, is actually the third-smallest (.30) caliber of those pictured.

    Perhaps, just perhaps, their study “suggests” that “effective regulation” of gangs and drugs might reduce the homicide rate.

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  5. I used a .22 Mini magnum, that round will put hurt on anybody. In South Carolina
    I was out shooting with a friend. Was sort of swampy, a snake was swimming on the surface of a nearby canal. As soon as it turned toward us, I squeezed of a round, the snake’s entire head was removed.

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  6. “Actually, guns do kill people, ”

    I guess I’m a lucky guy. I’ve been carrying for a long time. 1911’s, a Sig, lately a G19. All really well behaved guns. Never had any behavioral problems out of any of them.

    Who writes this shit?

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  7. Rule #6…this was discovered long ago

    Marine Corps rules:
    1. Be courteous to everyone, friendly to no one.
    2. Decide to be aggressive enough, quickly enough.
    3. Have a plan.
    4. Have a back-up plan, because the first one probably won’t work.
    5. Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
    6. Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun whose caliber does not start with a “4.”
    7. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive.
    8. Move away from your attacker. Distance is your friend. (Lateral & diagonal preferred.)
    9. Use cover or concealment as much as possible.
    10. Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours.
    11. Always cheat; always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.
    12. In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived.
    13. If you are not shooting, you should be communicating your intention to shoot.

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  8. Wasn’t a .22 the preferred gun by the mafia for close hits?…..as Bad Brad stated, the bullet doesn’t exit so it kind of scrambles the eggs….

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  9. The caliber debate remains unresolved.
    As reported by a recent commenter at Forgotten Weapons, battlefield statistics compiled after the World Wars suggest the German 9mm was at least as effective as the US .45ACP.

    Which is more effective- a large caliber, heavy, slow-moving bullet or a high velocity lightweight?
    The answer is:
    A hit with a mousegun is better than a miss with a handcannon.

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  10. It’s shot placement boys. Lot’s a people, including some trainers, still advocate the old center mass stuff. If you shoot somebody in the abdomen with a .38 thru a .44 mag, they will still most likely live long enough to possibly shoot you. If your target area is eye width, 18 inches down, you most likely will stop them immediately. Shot placement trumps displacement.

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  11. I suggest anyone interested in thorough comparisons of all types of ammunition and it’s effectiveness on various objects. Like using cars, trees, or walls for cover or shooting through windshields.

    Subscribe to Paul Harrell on YouTube.

    I personally find he runs the most entertaining and straightforward gun channel on YouTube.

    You might be surprised, he shoots through many myths and hype about guns and ammunition AND BACKS IT UP, thoroughly!

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  12. Conclusion; people who don’t know anything about firearms let alone never fired one shouldn’t write about them. They only confirm their ignorance on the matter.

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  13. My deer hunting experience tells me that caliber is not a significant factor, but placement it everything.
    My brother drops just as many with his .243 as I do with my 30-06.
    Shoot for the heart / top of the lungs area. If you are lucky you hit the heart or a main artery and they drop and die fast. If you just hit high in a lung it fills up with blood fast and then they drop and die soon. A gut shot doesn’t even slow them down.
    A gruesome topic, but practical. Both for hunting and self defense.

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  14. Anon: “The gun was up agains’t his jaw and the slug didn’t have time to accelerate.”

    You’ve been fed tripe. The projectile starts to slow the instant it leaves the barrel. It does not build momentum during flight and loses velocity with every inch it travels. There is a field of study called ‘Exterior Ballistics’, if you’d like to learn about these aspects of physics.

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  15. All this article does is fat shame big guns. Fat shaming is a form of bullying. Bullying leads to murder. We all know this. So stop fat shaming big guns and maybe they wont fly off the handle and shoot everyone.

    However, yes…I am putting my .357 on a diet.

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  16. Another lib scaring people. They really need their own country.

    I’d rather have a .22LR pistol than nothing. It will put a hurt on anyone. A .22 to the head is a bad day no matter who you are.

    .243 is pretty kick-ass. It’s a very flat shooter for the range it’s meant for and delivers a hard or explosive hit quite well. Surprised it’s not more popular than it is.

    ———————————–
    “The gun was up agains’t his jaw and the slug didn’t have time to accelerate.”

    The bullet has accelerated all it will accelerate when it reaches the end of the barrel. It slows down from that point on. Always.

    Physics.

    That was a placement story.

    (edit) I see Lowell addressed this also. That post wasn’t there when I was writing mine.

    ———————–
    “A friend of mine was shot by his glue huffing son with a ,12 gauge shotgun. Lost alot of blood but he lived.”

    Slug, bird shot, or something in-between? A detail that makes all the difference in shotgun wounds. Ask Cheney’s target that was shot in the face. That was no slug or buckshot.

    Guessing bird shot?

    ————————
    @ old oaks

    Paul Harrell on YouTube is the real deal for gun info.

    ————————
    There is a reason it’s “aim for center mass” and not “aim for the chest”.

    “Center mass” is a fluid, changing spot in a gunfight. It may be the center of a forehead peeking up over a barrier. It’s the largest mass available to target. If they are sideways to you, you aim for the widest area regardless of which body part it is. That may be the ear area on some of these water-heads out there.

    It’s about giving yourself the most room for aiming error and still hitting your target.

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  17. ““Center mass” is a fluid, changing spot in a gunfight. “\

    Just imagine if they were laying down. Way to take thing to the extreme.

    Center mass is an established universal standard. As is CNS.

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  18. I still like my 41AE. Have some gold dot’s that I believe are 210 gr. if I remember correctly that are coming at you @ 1150 FPS. Has most of your others starting with a “4” beat by a bunch.

    Practice with the 9mm, end with a couple of mags in 41 and then clean with the 41 back assembled for duty.

    Love my Tanfoglio / CZ clones a bunch…

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  19. …Anthony Braga of Northeastern University and Philip J. Cook of Duke University found that on a bullet-per-bullet basis, shootings committed with a large-caliber firearm are much more likely to result in a fatality than those with a smaller-caliber gun.

    No shit; that’s why I like ’em.

    “That suggests that effective regulation of firearms could reduce the homicide rate.”

    Yes. That has been such a roaring success in Chicago, Newark, BOSTON, etc., but you’re always ready to try and sell it again. More effective regulation of repeat miscreants would be more effective and leave the law-abiding alone.

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  20. They simply ignored my .45 ACP which I find quite bigoted. I think the Moros would disagree.

    I salute F4U Corsair and others that size does matter. Personally, I think a Finnish Lahti 20mm antitank rifle from WW2 would do the trick against MS-13 types. A little large to conceal carry.

    Also, to chime in with others, JAMA is not the place to go for information. They are biased and ignorant so their research is ridiculous and their resulting policy prescriptions are obscene.

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