That’s the mystery.

In my dealings with people, it seems that some view looking into mystery as somehow off-limits. While I don’t understand this approach to life, I realize it’s a personal style that I can only strengthen by challenging. If you are one of those people, then I advise you to stop reading this, as it will only irritate you.

For the rest of you, adding to our understanding of the mystery is my goal here. I don’t claim to have more than a few pieces of the puzzle clearly in sight. If it appears that I have drawn more than one or two shakey conclusions, then my apologies, but I can’t gain the benefit of your experience and insight if you just read my thoughts. I want to hear from you whether you agree or disagree. It would be a waste of my time--and yours--for this series of articles to be no more than lectures, so don’t be shy.

In this part, I’ll look at the simplest area in the subject of gunshot wounds, which is where John Taylor began in formulating his K.O. scale: head shots. Let me begin by stating one thing confidently. Virtually all penetrating brain damage from a gunshot is, or should be, fatal. (When I say "should be", I mean that surgeons can keep a lot of people alive, but it’s not what most would define as living. Animals are luckier than we are, in this respect.) I hope that got your attention. I’ll explain and expand.

Brain Injury

Unless you use your brain only for spacing your ears, even "mild brain damage" is a big deal. I’ve seen plenty of people who don’t even take a blow to the head, let alone lose consciousness, who just don’t think or remember things very well, after a car accident. Yeah, I know: lots of those people are under the influence of attorneys, and plenty were just plain goofy to begin with. I wasn’t born yesterday. The point is that it doesn’t take much to mess with brain functioning.

Bullet wounds in the brain are in another universe. Go ahead and send me all of your examples of your best friend, who was shot in the head, whose x-rays you saw with your own eyes, whose neurosurgery you assisted, who was awake and undamaged through it all, and who is now absolutely the same person he was before he was shot. Honest, I’m not trying to be obnoxious here. Maybe it just comes naturally. The point is that there are a lot of stories out there about people shot in the head that are just that: stories. I have yet to hear a story of this kind told with enough documented detail to change my opinion away from what I’ve learned in medical education and practice, and I’ve seen the weirdest of the weird. If you have your doubts, that’s healthy. I don’t have a problem with criticism in the slightest. Just give me a good reason to rethink my position here, and show me solid evidence and logic.

The medical reality of open brain injury from gunshot wounds in humans is that it is most typically quickly fatal, through three mechanisms. The first is the damage from "permanent" and "temporary" wound channels. Brain tissue is extremely delicate, even in tough guys. This means that there’s permanent destruction of brain tissue, both in the bullet’s track, and also where the collateral damage occurs. This collateral damage could be from "bullet energy" and fragments of skull, which act as secondary projectiles. The second is bleeding, which actually damages brain tissue on its own. The third is pressure developing in the brain, both from bleeding into the skull, and the swelling of brain tissue that starts quickly after the initial damage.

Once again, as I mentioned in an earlier article, "lights out" is not the same thing as "dead". Unconsciousness results from sufficient energy shock to that part of the brain that keeps us awake. Death results from the other brain damage, which actually takes a little longer, but death appears instant because the person or animal doesn’t regain consciousness. Also, the pulse and breathing may stop right away, due to damage to those parts of the brain responsible for keeping heart and lungs going.

Taylor K.O.

To review, the Taylor K.O. value of a given bullet is figured as follows:

K.O. = bullet weight x velocity x bullet diameter / 7000 (grains per pound)

It is energy shock to the brain of elephants that was John Taylor’s original focus in developing the Taylor K.O. figures. All other things being equal, momentum (and sectional density, by the way) was and is what carries a bullet down the line, in air or animal. Hit an elephant in the head with a bullet, and the brain may be relatively unaffected, due to the massive spongy bone cushioning it. Taylor’s book contains some very interesting pictures of elephant skulls chopped open to illustrate this. Therefore, the bullet with the most momentum gets closest to the brain, and delivers the most shock to the brain itself (rather than to just the skull).

Momentum is determined by the mass of the bullet and the velocity, while energy is the mass of the bullet, times the velocity, times the velocity again. Obviously, energy figures put the most emphasis on velocity. Up to a point, a small bullet at high velocity will explode when it hits a brick wall. A big enough bullet will knock the wall over.

This brings up the other factor in the K.O. scale, that of diameter of the bullet. The force transmitted by the bullet is equal to mass times velocity, but its force is delivered to tissue over more frontal area with a bullet of greater diameter. (It’s the same concept John Linebaugh talked about whan he explained the back-pressure exerted on the frame of the gun by the cartridge case: a bigger diameter case head puts more total pressure on the frame than a smaller diameter case head. Law of Laplace from physics, as I dimly recall.) That’s the difference between a small caliber bullet and a large caliber bullet in head shots. While Taylor claimed validation of his K.O. scale from his legion of animals slain, there is a scientific basis.

Exceptions to the Rules

Now, about that friend of yours that got shot in the head. First, people really do walk away from gunshot wounds to the head. Almost none are unimpressed by gunshot wounds to the brain. Again, let me draw a line between immediate and eventual effects of gunshot wounds to the head. Immediately, if there is enough force to the brain--even if there is no penetrating trauma--the lights go out.

What about the effects of satanic levels of drugs? In general,

1) Stimulants will help keep the lights on, but they can’t resist the movement of heaven

and earth, even though it may seem that way at the time. (I can already hear the outcries from those of you who have witnessed the antics of bullet-proof bad guys: "You are living on the protected sidelines, and you’d know the truth if your life were on the line". I agree that you can’t really appreciate some things unless you’re there, but at the same time there are some things you can’t understand in the heat of the moment. I don’t know what you know, and that’s why I’ll be angry if you don’t speak up.)

2) Narcotics will shield the user from pain. Period.

3) Hallucinogenic drugs (PCP causes hallucinations, but is strictly classed as a stimulant in humans) do not really transport the user to another world.

The most insulating effects of drugs on the immediate shock of bullet impact is most expected in the simulants, from the scientific sidelines. However, if the shock is great enough, the lights go out, by definition. How much is "great enough" is the variable. Stopping power (in a head shot) is most probably best conveyed by the Taylor K.O. formula, but it’s not reasonable to expect that how much is necessary to stop a person with a head shot will be the same for all people.

The other exception to the rule that I can think of is the effect--or lack of it--seen with small caliber, low energy bullets. I have no trouble at all believing that the blow delivered by a .25 auto bullet (that doesn’t penetrate the skull) is often not acknowledged by the shootee. Look at the Taylor K.O. values:

.357-- 158 x 1250 x .357 / 7000 = 10

125 x 1500 x .357 / 7000 = 9.6

9mm-- 115 x 1300 x .356 / 7000 = 7.6

.380 -- 90 x 1000 x .356 / 7000 = 4.6

.25 -- 50 x 800 x .257 / 7000 = 1.5!!!

Restricting ourselves to just the shock-to-the-head effects, no wonder there are so many stories about people shot in the head with no visible effects. Different parts of the skull are thicker than others, and some skulls are thicker than others.

The same thing holds, to a lesser degree, with penetrating trauma to the brain, in terms of the immediate effects. Later effects are much different, and consist of bleeding and swelling, both of which are most commonly fatal, especially if immediate medical attention is not given. The end result is often academic, though, as I wouldn’t want to survive most penetrating brain trauma, even from a .25 auto.

The Point

If you’ve made it this far you have unusual endurance. I wanted to start with what I think is the least controversial part of the story about why animals die or don’t die. I’ll expand this to look at the more difficult and controversial parts of the story, if there’s any interest--and if my editor doesn’t axe this part before it gets to print.

The point is again twofold:

1) The immediate effect of the shot could be unconsciousness, or diminished consciousness, or nothing. Which of these occurs depends on the amount of shock delivered, and the state of the brain at the time of impact.

2) The late effect of the wound, especially if unattended medically, is almost always death.

Again, this may be boring and obvious to most of you. What is interesting, I think, is that these same points can be modified to apply to any gunshot wound, and will provide some answers to the questions of what it takes to kill an animal with a bullet, and what relevance the Taylor K.O. scale has to killing power in general--and why.