It was written for The New York Times, and is dated today.
I will give you the title, and then some space to breathe, before you decide whether you go on.
Are you ready?
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Are you SURE????.
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Okay, here it is:
Wounds From Military-Style Rifles? ‘A Ghastly Thing to See.’
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Oh, and by the way, this piece, by Gina Kolata, who writes about science and medicine, and has twice been a Pulitzer finalist, and C.J. Chivers , a long-form writer/reporter for the Investigations Desk and The New York Times Magazine who won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing, and is also the author of "The Gun," has the following words just below the title, before the article itself begins:
Trauma surgeons tell what it is really like to try to repair such devastating injuries. “Bones are exploded, soft tissue is absolutely destroyed,” one said.
Now breathe, before you go below the fold.
This powerful article begins with this paragraph:
Perhaps no one knows the devastating wounds inflicted by assault-style rifles better than the trauma surgeons who struggle to repair them. The doctors say they are haunted by their experiences confronting injuries so dire they struggle to find words to describe them.
There is more introductory material, before getting to the words of the five surgeons featured in this article, three of whom have dealt with wounds from such weapons as military surgeons.
That introductory material lays out the factors that lead to catastrophic damage, including the mass, velocity, and composition of a bullet as well as where it strikes. A key factor is that the bullets are intended to “yaw” or turn sideways upon impact, causing even more damage, and this can be increased by not encasing the bullet in a full metal jacket and/or having a hollow point. Please note — the lack of a full metal jacket or the use of hollow points is not allowed for military weaponry under international law -such use would be a war crime. Even with military style bullets,
Surgeons say the weapons produce the same sort of horrific injuries seen on battlefields.
And without the limitations? It is too horrible even to contemplate, and yet we must.
Here I insert my own opinion, that besides removing any such weapons from civilian hands, we should quickly move to outlaw possession and use of the more devastating ammunition. Whether or not the 2nd Amendment would protect the right to own an AR-15 or its equivalent — and it does not — the regulation of ammunition has never been restricted by that Amendment.
You need to read the complete article. The words of the surgeons are powerful.
Allow me to share just a few.
Jeremy Cannon is a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve who served both Afghanistan and Iraq, and is now at the Medical School at the University of Pennsylvania:
“The tissue destruction is almost unimaginable. Bones are exploded, soft tissue is absolutely destroyed. The injuries to the chest or abdomen — it’s like a bomb went off.” If a bullet hits an arm or a leg, he said, the limb often hangs at an unnatural angle. Such victims can need a dozen surgeries over months. “Some eventually decide to undergo an amputation if there is severe pain in the limb and it is dysfunctional,” he said.
Martin Schreiber also served in both theaters as an Army Reservist and is now at the Oregon Health and Science University:
“You will see multiple organs shattered. The exit wounds can be a foot wide.”
“I’ve seen people with entire quadrants of their abdomens destroyed.”
There is more.
Much more.
Read carefully.
Take this article and pass it on to every public official you know
- mayors and city councilmen
- governors and state legislators
- Senators and Congressmen (not much point trying to influence the occupant of the Oval)
MAYBE, just MAYBE, we can begin to start changing enough minds to make a difference before we have more slaughters.
Or maybe someone can gather photos of the damage done, and force people to look at them. the way the mother of Emmett Till made people look at the ravage body of her son?
We have to do something.