Quantifiable

One of the few blogs I try to read regularly had an entry on pain.  Matt points out that pain is outside of our traditional training. 

Hurts to think about it.

 We can measure speed, accuracy, response time, bullet penetration into “jello” and so many other parameter, but cardboard targets don’t feel pain.

This is unfortunate.  Ammunition manufacturers could advertise their product as “Gun dropping painful!” as a way of promoting a “safer” round.  This would be turned around by lawyers claiming “… wanted to shoot and punish someone several times so they used a less painful bullet…”

Pain is also not a component of the holy grail of self-defense, stopping power.  A motivated person could soak up several rounds without too much notice even when they die later.  The 1986 FBI Miami Shoot-out demonstrates that.  Both Platt and Matix soaked up an impressive amount of firepower before dying.

Pain, like all sensations, is perceived by the brain.  The thalamus, part of the primitive brain, receives the nerve impulses and communicates this to the thinking part called the cerebral cortex.  Its here that pain is interpreted and emotions like fear, anxiety and pleasure are experienced with a wide range of responses.

Instructors try to approach the concept by attempting to increase anxiety and fear hoping to vaccinate the student against the paralytic effects of these emotions.  Massad Ayoob used to take students one at a time to the range after frightening warning them about the effects of being zapped with a stun gun on their backside.  Of course he’d first do this to his line officers.  I remember getting zapped, jumping while screaming in fake pain, hitting the ground and then drawing my gun to complete the course of fire.  

This of course produced the desired effect in the students who were told to stand behind a berm and not to watch as it was too terrifying to witness.  Of course all of them found some location to take in the range theatre.

Even training in normal attire (no armor) with Simunitions, being tagged doesn’t approximately the pain of being shot. 

Or does it?  

I’ve gotten spectacular bruises from Simunitions which were painful hours later, but all I remember of the hit was impact and not the pain.  I met a fellow in one class who had been shot with a .45 ACP while in the service and his description had more to deal with fear of death than pain.

We have anecdotal evidence that pain is blocked out when the survival of the organism is at stake.  The zebra that can’t ignore the lion’s painful clawing and bite isn’t likely to survive the attack.  While the animal may die later from complications, immediate survival depends on escaping.

Read the parable Matt starts his column with.  It’s insightful.  The carjacker doesn’t talk about pain as much as he talks about:

• Fear
• Paralyzing effects of fear
• Not having a plan.

We know that fear and pain have a relationship.  As teachers and students, at best we can only introduce levels of discomfort.  Few CQC courses would prosper if most of the students exited the class with torn rotator cuffs and broken fingers.  The same applies to firearm courses.  Shooting students through the ass, or an in-out through the bicep will land you in civil court at best.

But fear, we can learn to deal with that.