Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Non-L&C FFQs: guns & gunshot wounds

I won't blame all of you if you don't want to help because this isn't a L&C fic I'm working on. My muse just doesn't like those, I'm afraid--she hasn't had a hint of an idea for one in probably 4 or 5 years. She's been rather helpful with my latest fandom obsession, however, which is Sue Thomas, F.B.Eye.

Only problem is, I know nothing about firearms and gunshot wounds and all these things. So I posted to a community on LiveJournal designed to answer such questions. I got the two lesser questions answered, and my two really BIG questions--not answered yet. So I still can't work on my story, because where I go with this will depend on exactly what happens to the people when they're shot in the various places.

The post I made is here (I hope it's OK to link to): http://community.livejournal.com/little_details/2801662.html
I found a Youtube clip of the scenes in question and linked to it at that post, so you can go to it and spot where the gun is, how the shooting happened (or would've happened, since I am doing an alternate ending), etc.

Basically, #2 is the most important (gunshot wound to the back--what possible effects, as long as she doesn't die?), but it would be very helpful to know #1 (what kind of gun) and get an expanded answer to #3 (since it sounds like shoulder wounds are more serious than TV makes them out to be, what range of prognosis-es are we looking at?). With all the research that's been done on gunshot wounds for L&C, I'm sure someone here would know . . .

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide, even just reading this.

Don't take my comment on shoulder wounds as definitive evidence - I only know this because my uncle lost his arm in WW2 thanks to a shoulder wound, plus I've seen references to this in more realistic fiction. Shoulders have bones, arteries, and lots of nerves going through them, any wound there has to be taken seriously, but serious damage may not be inevitable - if you want it to be a shoulder wound, just say that the victim was very lucky not to be seriously injured.

You'd also need to know what caliber the weapon was, how far away the shooter was from the target (the longer the distance the slower the bullet, and therefore it does marginally less damage), what kind of bullet it was (soft lead, soft lead with crosscut nose - illegal and very destructive - solid metal ball, full metal jacket), whether the impact was direct or glancing, what bones it hit, if any - there are a lot of variables.

What about a thirty-two semiauto (that could be what the bad guy shoots the dog with in the video clip) firing a full metal jacket round with an angled impact moving from just below and to the outside of the lowest point of the shoulder blade between the ribs and exiting the side below the armpit after a two-inch long penetration? That would produce a lot of bleeding and incapacitate the victim, but assuming prompt medical care would not mean permanent injury or a long recovery process.

Just a suggestion.

Elisabeth and I were HUGE Sue Thomas FBEYE fans when the show was just out, brand new.

We also joined a fan forum that was split between the hearing and deaf community. Let me tell you, it is interesting reading fanfic that is written by someone that doesn't know how the language is spoken, only signed...

However, I thank you that you have posted links to "aubreysmom" fics!!! She was, and apparently is, hands down the best author that the old forum we belonged to had to offer. Her Myles and Elizabeth Dillingham fics were fantastic and I look forward to be reading them again.

Thank you for posting this.

I's also love to read your story you are working on.

James

Let's see . . . one of my questions what what sort of gun was used. There's a couple glimpses of it in the video clip, but since I know nothing about weaponry, I didn't have a clue. You say it looks like a .32 semi-automatic? I'll take your word for it. *g* Someone on LJ said something about it looking like a SIG Sauer (I don't know what that means, really). You can see their comment here .

How far away was the shooter from the victim--you can kind of get a guess at it from the video, if you can judge distances. I can't. I'm horrible at it. Anyone good enough to give me an estimate?

What kind of bullet is entirely up to me, since I don't think we have any idea. I like your possibility of how it could go, though. That's perfect for this case--I'd like Jack to be less injured than Sue, in the sense of how quickly he could recover. She's going to have it definitely worse, because of where she gets hit. Someone on LJ was really helpful giving me an idea of what would happen there, so I *think* I have a general outline of what would happen.

Direct impact or glancing? Does that mean did it hit it straight on or sideways? Looks like it would have hit Jack somewhat sideways; Sue's wound, on the other hand, straight on.

As for whether it hit bones . . . well, they don't show enough to be sure, which means I get to choose. I don't want either one permanently incapacitated or disabled (Jack has to be able to go back out in the field, for instance), but he's not going to be feeling right as rain the next week either.

Oh wow, I bet that IS interesting . . . Is it mostly quality issues you're referring to, or just plain misunderstandings on what would happen? The one STFBE forum I've joined has a lot of fanfic that I took one quick glance at and moved on because of the rampant misspellings. No clue whether the writers were hearing or deaf there; I've spotted at least one poster I've figured out is Deaf but beyond that I don't really know. It's mostly dead these days, it seems, but I found five or six really decent authors (including the ones also on ff.n). The better forum for fanfic for that show is definitely RomanceFanfiction.net, though there doesn't seem to be much overlap of writers so far.

Yeah, aubreysmom wrote some AMAZING stuff. I've given her some very positive fdk and begged for her to finish the WNE series; hopefully we'll get to see the third story in that trilogy. It is intensely emotional, way darker than Becky Bain's In a Dark Time even and more triggery in terms of the content, I would suspect, but it's incredible. I have read the two fics through multiple times already. And I found a new fic by a writer new to STFBE fic-writing that I've just GOT to rec in my post, so I'll be adding it soon.

As for the fic I'm working on, I can friend you on LJ and add you to the custom friends group for fanfic readers, if you'd like--PM me if you'd like that. Anyone else who would like to see the fic too, feel free to friend me there and PM me why so I'll know who you are. I don't post my fics publicly till they're all finished and edited, so you'll be getting the BR view of it, basically.