“Even blanks will kill at short range.”
Oddly you are very correct. A blank fired at you from a couple of feet is like fist from Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was young, but will not kill you. A blank fired against the skull ( we are talking tens of thousands of pounds per square inch bore pressure) will drive broken skull fragments into to your brain. You die instantly. It is painless but a definite contender for a Darwin Award.
Yup, people realy underestimate things.