eli5: Do people really fall instantly like in movies, after getting shot? If so, why?
In: 3
There are three main causes of incapacitation:
Central nervous system hit (spine/brain), the person is going down now
Bleeding, which can take a while for blood pressure to drop low enough to cause the person to go down. Depends on where hit: heart or major artery bleed fast, other areas not so fast.
Psychological shock, the mind saying “Oh my god I’m hit I need to go down.”
Not quite so often, hit in both lungs that causes collapse so the person can’t breathe, which of course won’t instantly take someone down.
A pissed off person can take many hits before bleeding finally takes him down, as long as the CNS isn’t hit. But then someone can drop like a rock if grazed on the leg because they freaked out.
As with computers, when it comes to guns movies are usually very, very wrong.
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