There is no evidence for such a reaction that rises beyond the level of Gun Show Commando Gossip.MarkD wrote:I've heard that if you're wearing armor that will stop a rifle bullet, and you get hit with a rifle bullet, you're still going to be out of the fight for the next hour or so because of the slam your body took. IOW you'll survive, but you won't be doing any fighting in this engagement.
It isn't liable to take you out of any fight, just piss you off, unless one is either made of glass, a contemporary of WWII veterans, or sipping hot cocoa in their footie PJs.
Humble street cops have been suffering cracked ribs while wearing vests only rated for pistol fire, for decades. While it's possible one or more were rendered non-combatant and subsequently dispatched by the impacts, I am unaware of any such, and am open to the counter-evidence. The number of stories where they not only weren't out of the fight, but pressed on and took out their attackers concurrently are, quite literally, legion.
There may be some anecdotal or apocryphal stories of people hit with shrapnel or gunfire in steel or Kevlar helmets and being knocked out by direct concussion as a result, but otherwise, any bullet that fails to penetrate your skin isn't going to take you out of a fight except under the most miraculous circumstances imaginable.
I've never been shot, but I have no trouble imagining it hurts. I've broken bones that hurt a lot, and when same were in leg joints, made it hard to run. I have never broken a bone, or taken a punch, or both, that rendered me unable to return fire for more than a fractional second, nor required me to lie down for a time while I gave matters further thought, and I'm nobody anything but my neighbor's cat would look at and fear.
You're supposing a bullet might manage to do something that not even every Mike Tyson punch was able to accomplish. Unless there's some archive of beyond-Top-Secret YouTube videos of guys getting thumped insensible when shot wearing IBA and such over the last decade of games in Southwest Asia, I'm going with no effing way. And I think such stories would've been shouted from the rooftops long since.
Bullets don't do what they can't do, and they certainly aren't going to do a level of damage when they fail to penetrate that they can't even reliably perform when they hit their mark and do penetrate.
Otherwise Hornady Crotch Kick Death Punch Magic Zombie Killer Bullets would be sold by the half-box at $5@, and marked "LE/Military Only".
Although, as I'm not at the SHOT Show, perhaps they are even as we speak.
