Quote Originally Posted by DocGKR View Post
There are numerous reports in the medical and forensic literature that show a higher mortality rate with stabbing victims vs. those shot with handgun projectiles.
This is certainly true when you select data for intentional GSW's and edged weapon wounds (EWW's), and discard all the unintentional/negligent wounds.

The long-quoted statistic from the American College of Surgeons Advanced Trauma Life Support course is that handguns GSW's have an overall mortality of under 20%. When suicides are subtracted from that number--as they should be, as typically the handgun is in contact with the cranium or in the mouth with subsequent massive brain damage, and as such are almost always lethal--the mortality rate of handgun GSW's drops to under 10%.

A major metropolitan police force recently concluded a multi-year study of officer mortality when assaulted by felons and concluded that the likelihood of officer mortality from handgun GSWs is about 5%. This, of course, is in a group of persons who wear ballistic vests and have the means and training to shoot back at the felons who have assaulted them. In an unarmored person, mortality would necessarily be higher, but by all estimates still under 10%

From an emergency medicine & surgical perspective, treatment of handgun GSWs is relatively straightforward. EWW's present a much more complex diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. EWWs that penetrate the thoracic or abdominal cavities have a much higher rate of mortality than handgun GSWs in no small part because of the complexity of the problem presenting to the physician/surgeon.