Thanks to Goldsborough and a co-worker I spoke with this morning I actually understood what you just posted about bullets! =)
Fascinating information about what actually causes a bullet to be lethal.
The description you give for Giffords’ potential injuries sounds just like my brain function right now. I always thought it was either my kids driving me to distraction, my brain being too full of other stuff, or else just getting old. I’m so old I can’t even remember I’m 45. lol. Maybe the growth on my pituitary is doing more than we think it is.
Surprised at the 33% death rate among the others who were hit, because that’s more deadly than you would have expected, or less deadly? The placement of the bullet would have been the critical factor, right? Most of the hits were to the leg areas, even though he was in very close range on all of them.
Mary Reed, who pushed her daughter against the wall and covered her with her body to protect her, was shot 3 times - once in the back and once in each arm - and was fine. She was a non-moving target at close range. He hit her 3 times and she was fine. I’m very thankful that she was fine; what a beautiful picture of love her sacrifice was. But it surprised me that he didn’t kill her even with 3 tries. Is that what either of you would expect, TxDas and Goldsborough?
33% is a bit high but I don’t have details of how and where the others were hit. I think a lot of them were multiple hits.
Statistically, 33% would be at least 2 standard deviations out so I think it is a fluke but he was up close and just popping unarmed victims. If you pick your shot then the lethality goes way up.