knowledge about suicide via gun

[plain_jane]

I know if you shoot in certain areas the chance of death raises significantly. The 10% survival rate of being shot in the head is of course only a product of technicalities and poorly researched suicides. Still, I wonder if there is any data, about just how certain death can be, provided you shoot in the right place with the right gun. I think I'd prefer a handgun. Although I doubt theres any hard data on the increased efficacy of certain firearms and shooting certain spots, I do wonder if I could produce a shot to the head from a gun with a 99% chance of near instant death. I think that would satisfy my desire for something quick. Any thoughts or ideas about this?

 

[locked*n*loaded]

I think there's hard data on the efficacy of using a shotgun to blast out the back of your head via shooting yourself through your mouth. It's about 100%. Or as close to 100% you're ever going to get. Frankly, the larger the caliber weapon you use, the greater the odds of success, especially if shooting yourself at a slight upward angle with the gun, placed into your mouth, in order to sever the brain stem. Can't know for certain (obviously), but death should be very quick, gruesomeness notwithstanding. If you're not too worried about the after affects for anyone that finds you, it might be the perfect method. It's not the method for me, but personally I wouldn't try the gunshot method with anything other than a shotgun blast into my mouth. That's just me, though. I know many have been successful with handguns, possibly even small caliber ones, but I just wouldn't take that chance. I'd be too concerned about failure and the ramifications of such. Of course, YMMV.

 

[Anon?]

The 10% survivavility rate is there to scare you.
The suvivalivity rates are not randomly generated, the bullet itself dosen't randomly decide wether it wants to expand or not. It depends on various variables such as caliber and gun.
The .22 LR caliber (pistol ammo) is the most common ammo used in failed suicide attempts and by civilians disregarding suicide, and it is also the smallest, weakest round compared to other calibers like the 9mm which is waaay more lethal, if you know a bit about guns you will surely have a 100% mortality rate...
The reason weak calibers like the .22 LR may not kill it's victim is because of its penetration power from the causes I already mentioned.

Survival rate was significantly increased in patients with injury limited to one lobe of the brain, compared with patients with brain wounds of greater severity demonstrated on computerized tomographic scan (P less than .05), while a missile crossing both vertical anatomic planes of the brain or coming to rest in the posterior fossa was lethal in 100% of cases.

Outcome of self-inflicted gunshot wounds of the brain - PubMed

A consecutive series of 67 patients who had sustained self-inflicted gunshot wounds of the brain was reviewed retrospectively to evaluate factors determining outcome. Weapon caliber, site of bullet entry, degree of brain wounding on computerized tomographic scan, and presenting Glasgow Coma...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

So according to the study above, for 100% lethality rate we should aim to penetrate the entirety of the brain.

Other factors associated with the effectiveness of gun suicide would be muzzle velocity to a lesser extent, which determines the speed in which the bullet travels. However, if the weapon already uses 9mm or greater it shouldn't be of concern.
If you want to commit suicide by shotgun, then be sure it is of 12caliber or lower, and most importantly be sure of using buckshot ammo or slug ammo, birdshot ammo (designed for bird game) is obviously very weak and it is not going to kill you, which also conforms with a large portion of unsuccessful shotgun suicide attempts.

 

[wait.what]

There's a lot of debate about survival statistics In the Firearms Megathread. (Edit: Thanks for the study data, @Anon? . I hadn't seen that before.) The firearms thread is mostly people's guesses and opinions, since there seems to be no really reliable data on the success rate of suicide by firearms. Part of that is deliberate under-reporting due to stigma, and part is due to the large differences between types of firearms and how skillfully people use them. People have been known to survive a shot to the temple from a .22, or worse, a badly-aimed shot from a large-caliber weapon or even a powerful shotgun loaded with 00 buck. It turns out that with prompt medical attention, you can survive without the bones of your face and even with some of your frontal lobe blown off. I suppose a properly signed and counter-signed advance directive with "DO NOT RESUSCITATE" written on it, and then tattooed on your torso, might possibly help in that worst of all cases, but then it might not. Some people just cannot let someone else die on purpose, regardless of what that person says about the quality of their life. So basically, it pays to be very sure of your intentions when dealing with firearms, and ideally build in failsafes and backup plans.

My own original plan involved a 20 gauge shotgun and buckshot, but my skeleton enjoys fusing its joints together, and my range of motion continues to get poorer. I'm not sure I could physically aim a long gun and pull the trigger at the same time. Cutting a shotgun's barrel below 18" is illegal, and I'm trying to keep my trans ass out of jail. Lots of transgender people die in there all right, but not in the way most of us had in mind.

I've increasingly begun to consider a mid-caliber handgun and hollow point bullets. As a "just in case," I might stand in a local river at night, when the streets of my stupid little city are deserted. If I was unlucky enough to survive the hollow point shot, I certainly wouldn't be in any condition to get back to shore afterward. I'd drown, probably while unconscious.

Don't ask me what I'll do if I become so disabled that I can't use a firearm or access a river unaided. One reason why MAiD is important to people like me is that we aren't forced to punch our own tickets early, for fear that it will become impossible later.

Let me be clear: I'm not actually enamored of death—at least most of the time. I've just been through things that I can never, ever face again. My bargain with life has been that I will try to hold on here, but I reserve the right to cash in my remaining chips at a moment's notice. There is BS out there "up with which I will not put," to quote Winston Churchill. (I think it was him anyway.)

Sorry that kind of became all about me there, but long as it was, it does mostly summarize the Firearms Megathread. Now you don't have to wade through 60 pages of people squabbling about 20 gauge vs. .410, which I barely even understand, much less care about.

 

[Guy Smiley]

...I do wonder if I could produce a shot to the head from a gun with a 99% chance of near instant death. I think that would satisfy my desire for something quick. Any thoughts or ideas about this?

Like the other replies said, it depends on several factors. A shotgun is the most lethal kind of gun for suicide, but handguns are plenty lethal, so you don't have to use a shotgun if you would prefer to use a handgun (which I totally understand).

Although there aren't any good statistics/data on the lethality of different types of handguns used in suicides (at least not that I am aware of), as a general rule of thumb, the more powerful the caliber, the more lethal the gun. So, while a 9mm aimed correctly at the brainstem and using a hollow point bullet has an excellent chance of causing immediate loss of consciousness and very fast death, on average, a 45 ACP likely has an even higher chance, and a 357 Magnum an even higher chance than that. I think the main reason for this is because, the more powerful the caliber, the less accurate the aim needs to be. With a 357 Magnum, for example, even if the bullet completely missed the brainstem, just the sheer force of the shockwave it causes would likely still cause death.

But, also as a general rule of thumb, the more powerful the caliber, the more messy/gory it's likely going to be. If one had any choice of handgun and isn't concerned about the mess it will cause or how their corpse will look, then they might as well go with the 357 Magnum. But if one wants to leave less mess/gore, then they should probably go with a 9mm (a .22 LR would cause the least amount, but as was said in one of the other replies, it's a significantly weaker caliber and has a lower chance of lethality).

Personally, if I were to use a gun to CTB, I would probably go with a 9mm because I want to cause the least amount of mess/gore possible whilst still ensuring an excellent chance of success ("success" for me means immediate loss of consciousness and very fast death).