Question about body armor and close range pistol fire in Colo. theater shooting.

[das]

Just curios if someone in the theater did have a pistol with the body armor he had on would there be any effect? I would guess its a natural reaction to be startled when someone opens fire on you body armor or not, but would it be enough (remember they were at pretty close range) to stun him enough to maybe get a better shot at an unprotected area?

[Metz]

I guess an actor will be disabled for at least few seconds after couple of .45 hits.

[bac0nfat]

See: North Hollywood Shootout

[spacemanvic]

The shooter did NOT have body armor. He was only wearing a tac vest.

Pockets in the vest: YES
Armor in the pockets: NO

[palawstudent]

I'm NOT an expert. I'm going to assume if he was wearing soft body armor, then he would still probably feel the kinetic energy of a handgun round. It's probably the same feeling as getting punched in the stomach by a younger Muhammed Ali. If he had ceramic or steel plates, then I guess he wouldn't feel anything.

[bac0nfat]

I'm NOT an expert. I'm going to assume if he was wearing soft body armor, then he would still probably feel the kinetic energy of a handgun round. It's probably the same feeling as getting punched in the stomach by a younger Muhammed Ali. If he had ceramic or steel plates, then I guess he wouldn't feel anything.

No matter what kind of body armor a person is wearing, ALL of the kinetic energy is still transferred into the person unless the bullet passes all the way through. It's the law of conservation of energy. The difference is, hard armor will distribute the energy over a larger area than soft armor, so it will feel like more of a "push" than a "punch."

[homedefender]

The shooter did NOT have body armor. He was only wearing a tac vest.

Pockets in the vest: YES
Armor in the pockets: NO

This is what i thought i heard at one point as well and then averyone jumped on the body armor wagon. Do you have a link i was looking around and couldnt find anything, my guess is you wont find out for awhile for sure one way or another.

See: North Hollywood Shootout

didnt they have multi layers of vests

[Sharkey]

I was thinking about what I would do IF I was there and had a chance to shoot back ..... Would I be thinking body armor IF I hit him and he reacted to the hit ...... Would I be alert enough to realize he had armor on possably whole body ...... COULD I make a face shot ...... Lot going on in that senario ...

[NShortino]

The shooter did NOT have body armor. He was only wearing a tac vest.

Pockets in the vest: YES
Armor in the pockets: NO

Not that I doubt you, but do you have any sources for that? From the first news report I wondered if the "body armor" was actually a bullet-proof vest or not, but so far I haven't any definitive information on that. They keep releasing pictures of the weapons, but I haven't seen one detailed pic of the alleged body armor.

Also, there was already an entire thread on what types of ammo will work vs. body armor:
Thinking of calibers best suited for use on body armor?

[American1776]

One thing that you might try is to shoot at the gun hand. I know we are talking outer-landish in terms of what we can expect to succeed at, but the situation is already so screwed up we might as well try. Massad Ayoob has said that there are quite a few cases of people in gun fights being hit in the shooting hand. This is because the shooter is involuntarily zooming in on the gun that's pointed in their face.

This is similar to the concepts that Michael Janich teaches in his MBC classes. Take out the attackers ability to continue the violence by cutting the forearm, biceps, and quadriceps.

A 9mm or 45 to the hand will summarily stop the shooting, at least for a few good moments to close and engage further or for you and others to escape.

Like i said, it's really grasping, but when the only choice is to try the improbable or die, I want to at least try.