Just a Flesh Wound

Gunshot wounds don’t seem very frightening to the general public. Gunplay in our movies and TV shows often resulted in “just a flesh wound” and the victim still able to ride off into the sunset. Gunplay in video games ended with a cloud of pulverized flesh and blood, but those were cartoons after all. The Roadrunner always survived being crushed by that 1,000 lb anvil, too.

With the advent of the AR-15, we may have to alter our image of gunshot wounds. Bullets from an AR-15 travel at high velocity and “tumble” when striking flesh. The inlet wound is about the size of a quarter. The exit wound can be as large as an orange. An adult can survive a quarter-size hole in a non-vital part of his body. A bullet hole the size of an orange has to wipe out a major organ or artery.

Still maybe an adult can survive. A child cannot. One of the Uvalde victims was identifiable only by the sneakers she was wearing. The rest of her body was mangled beyond recognition by multiple AR-15 rounds. Show morgue photos of that to Congressional Republicans and see if they still allow 18 year olds to buy AR-15s.

Those Congressional Republicans might respond, “Sure that’s bad, but those kids in Uvalde were shot at close range. Any firearm is really dangerous at close range.”

The Highland Park shooting was long range from a rooftop to the street below. An 8-year-old boy had his spinal cord severed by a round from an AR-15 and is paralyzed from the waist down. He wasn’t essentially “vaporized” like those poor kids in Uvalde but he may never walk again.

Short range or long range, kids hit by AR-15 rounds suffer terrible consequences. It is never “just a flesh wound” for them.

By Ed Dufton