The more we research head injuries, we find more and more unpleasant symptoms they can cause. And we’re finding that very minor head injuries can add up to even more of a problem than one big head injury. Football players get the bulk of the coverage, with the massive hits they plant on each other on the field, sometimes causing very serious concussions. But research has also shown that soccer players, who head the ball thousands of times over their careers, also show effects similar to what those football players show after a concussion.
And now there’s an article in the New York Times saying the concussion from shooting guns can cause those same cumulative types of brain injuries. Granted, this study was not scientifically conducted, but there will very likely be more studies conducted to assess what kind of brain damage can stem from shooting guns. And again, this study wasn’t completely scientific, but it did point out some things you can do to minimize the potential damage.
One of those things is to limit the amount of time you spend in indoor shooting ranges. Out here in Wyoming, that’s pretty easy to do, because we don’t have many of those ranges. But the story noted that shooting indoor magnifies the concussive forces of the gun blasts, because they rebound off the walls and baffles and come back to the shooter. Shooting outside doesn’t do that.
The other major factor is the caliber. Obviously, the bigger the boom, the worse the effect on the brain. But even so, most calibers, according to the article, have very low concussive forces.
I’ll be interested to see how this affects safety gear like earmuffs, and shooting range design. And I’ll keep shooting at my outdoor shooting range.
