Myth Buster

The Truth about Gunshots

By: Mahnoor Farooqi - Researcher

Most of what we know about gunshots is misconceptions built from what we’ve seen in movies. This is not because the movie director is intentionally throwing you off but rather for the sake of theatrics.

One such occasion would be when people get thrown back into a wall, car , onto the road etc. when they get shot. This is false. The human body not only has a high ability to resist motion (Inertia) but when a bullet comes in contact with a body its impact is absorbed and divided across the body. As a consequence usually you will find the person continues to remain where they were standing initially with very little movement. This does not mean there are no weapons that can shoot targets back but typically such weapons have such great impact that even the inertia of the shooter would be overcome - throwing them backwards as well!

Another common misconception is that bullets will easily move through water or a denser gas. Water is almost 800 times denser than air. The increase in density results in a greater opposing force applied to the bullet. This prevents the bullet from travelling any more than a few feet in water. One movie that surprisingly does this realistically is ‘Rango’, living up to “ It only takes one bullet”.