CNN Wolf Blitzer: Why Don’t Cops “Shoot to Wound?”
Maybe because criminals don’t usually shoot, or attack, to “wound”?
Excellent article written by a trauma surgeon:
POLICE MAGAZINE
Stopping Power: Myths, Legends, and Realities
When it comes to claims about the effectiveness of handgun ammo, don’t believe the hype.
January 16, 2013 | by Sydney Vail, MD
As a trauma surgeon and a tactical medical specialist, I am often asked by law enforcement officers what caliber and type of handgun ammunition offers the most stopping power. I can’t answer that question. Let me explain why.
Excerpts...
Now we need to go back a step and define stopping power. Is it the ability of a particular ammunition to:
Immediately incapacitate a threat?
Eventually incapacitate a threat?
Slow down a threat?
Render a person less able to remain a threat?
Knock the threat to the ground?
....
The ultimate stopping power rests with your training with your weapon system. Accurate hits in any reasonable caliber will “stop” a person if that person has experienced enough brain or spinal cord damage to interrupt regular neurologic impulses from reaching vital areas of the body or the person has hemorrhaged enough blood to lower his or her blood pressure where the brain no longer is able to function well. You can also stop a person if a major bone shatters after a bullet injures it, but does that stop the fight?
Read all of the article at: http://www.policemag.com/channel/weapons/articles/2013/01/stopping-power-myths-legends-and-realities.aspx`