BALLISTICS AND MECHANISMS OF TISSUE WOUNDING

The wounding potential and mechanisms of tissue damage of firearms are reviewed. Internal ballistics is the study of projectile flight withi n a firearm while external ballistics describes projectile flight thro ugh air to the target. Terminal ballistics characterizes the final eff ects of the bullet after it has impacted its target. Upon impact, thre e tissue phenomena are noted: sonic wave formation, temporary cavitati on, and permanent cavitation. Subsequent tissue damage is dependent on the characteristics of the firearm that fired the projectile (e.g. ri fle versus handgun), the nature of the projectile itself (e.g. fully j acketed versus expanding bullet), and the attributes of the target tis sue (e.g. tissue elasticity).