Target Shooting Could Be Causing Brain Injuries. We Measured the Danger.

Every day, thousands of people use indoor gun ranges that are designed to limit the hazards of target shooting, including lead exposure and stray bullets. But shooting indoors poses another hazard that has been almost entirely overlooked: Concussive blast waves that can damage the brain.

Evidence has emerged from the U.S. military that firing some military weapons can damage brain cells, and repeated exposure may cause permanent injuries. But there is next to no public information about the strength of the blast waves delivered by civilian firearms, or the potential hazard.

So The New York Times did its own testing, and gathered its own data. Reporters measured the blasts of several popular civilian guns at an indoor range, using the same sensors that the military uses. The data showed that some large-caliber civilian rifles delivered a blast wave that exceeds what the military says is safe for the brain, and firing smaller-caliber guns repeatedly could quickly add up to potentially harmful exposure. The data also showed that indoor shooting ranges designed to make shooting safe inadvertently make blast exposure worse — doubling and sometimes tripling the amplitude of the blast.

Scrolling through this video reveals frame-by-frame footage of an individual firing a gun. After, an illustrated blast wave is shown that expands and permeates through the shooter’s body. A sensor on the shooter’s chest is labeled to show a reading of 1.1 average P.S.I. A sensor on the shooter’s head is labeled to show a 1.3 average P.S.I. Each time a gun is fired, a supersonic pressure wave surges from the muzzle back toward the person pulling the trigger. Each time a gun is fired, a supersonic pressure wave surges from the muzzle back toward the person pulling the trigger. These sensors measure the pressure of the blast wave hitting the body, in pounds per square inch, or P.S.I. These sensors measure the pressure of the blast wave hitting the body, in pounds per square inch, or P.S.I. The readings captured for this 9-mm pistol, for example, were relatively low for a single shot, but that doesn’t mean the blasts are safe. The readings captured for this 9-mm pistol, for example, were relatively low for a single shot, but that doesn’t mean the blasts are safe.

The brain is a delicate network of about 100 trillion connections with a consistency clo