Another interesting thing to consider is the psychological effects of being shot.
I saw on TV a home movie some teenagers made of shooting people with their paintball gun (drive-by style). One person got shot about 4 times, which I'm sure hurt, but fell down screaming bloody murder thinking that the weapon had been a real firearm. It's all in the mind.
The FBI got in depth on all this - here's some excerpts below. I recommend reading the full section "The Human Target". I don't think that the Moro's really needed drugs. I think their fighting spirit alone could have been enough to keep them going after taking a few rounds.
FBI Report: HANDGUN WOUNDING FACTORS AND EFFECTIVENESS
Quote:
The Human Target
Physiologically, a determined adversary can be stopped reliably and immediately only by a shot that disrupts the brain or upper spinal cord. Failing a hit to the central nervous system, massive bleeding from holes in the heart or major blood vessels of the torso causing circulatory collapse is the only other way to force incapacitation upon an adversary, and this takes time. For example, there is sufficient oxygen within the brain to support full, voluntary action for 10-15 seconds after the heart has been destroyed.(28)
The Allure of Shooting Incident Analyses
Further, it appears that many people are predisposed to fall down when shot. This phenomenon is independent of caliber, bullet, or hit location, and is beyond the control of the shooter. It can only be proven in the act, not predicted. It requires only two factors to be effected: a shot and cognition of being shot by the target. Lacking either one, people are not at all predisposed to fall down and don't. Given this predisposition, the choice of caliber and bullet is essentially irrelevant. People largely fall down when shot, and the apparent predisposition to do so exists with equal force among the good guys as among the bad. The causative factors are most likely psychological in origin. Thousands of books, movies and television shows have educated the general population that when shot, one is supposed to fall down.
Conclusions
Physiologically, no caliber or bullet is certain to incapacitate any individual unless the brain is hit. Psychologically, some individuals can be incapacitated by minor or small caliber wounds. Those individuals who are stimulated by fear, adrenaline, drugs, alcohol, and/or sheer will and survival determination may not be incapacitated even if mortally wounded.
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