15 lbs per sq inch. The Mendoza line of armed self defense?

15 pounds per square inch. That is the force required to crack open the human skull. Doesn’t sound like much does it? That’s because it isn’t. But is it enough of a reason to defend yourself with a gun? Does it cross the Mendoza line?

That is the question now being argued in the George Zimmerman case since the prosecution’s main witnesses basically blew up in his face. The first, Rachel Jeantel, alluded that Martin was spoiling for a fight since he noticed a “creepy ass cracker” was following him. The second, John Good, described the scene he witnessed with Trayvon Martin atop Zimmerman raining blows down upon him, “ground and pound style”.

So we find ourselves with a neighborhood watch captain, investigating a stranger in the neighborhood and then calling the police to report it, on his back being bludgeoned by a middleweight.

This is the moment. This is when the anti gun media and all the gun grabbers are going to point to and say that Zimmerman should have just gotten his ass kicked and the need to shoot was excessive. It’s also the only play the prosecution seems to have been left by the debacle they orchestrated by their own witnesses.

15 lbs of pressure per square inch. That is the threshold between living and probably dying. That is when your skull with crack and shatter. We all ready know that Martin was at least half way there because the amount of psi required to break a nose is between 7 and 9 psi.

Now, you may think that boxers get punched harder than this all the time. You’re right, they do. But the force of the punches that boxers take(and anybody really) is dissipated by the body absorbing it and recoiling backwards.

BUT, when you are on the ground and your head does not have any room to recoil and dissipate the force, the threshold for damage is lowered dramatically.

To illustrate it in another way, think of a catcher in baseball being run into at home plate.

Now imagine that that catcher is against a wall.

That is the difference between a normal punch to the head and what George Zimmerman was facing that night. What sane person can really try to justify that Zimmerman should have just laid there and took it and hope that Martin stopped before any permanent damage was done?

Oh yeah…these people:

Then again, I did say sane.

There are reasons that MMA refs stop fights quickly when a ground and pound is being done on an opponent without the ability to defend themselves. And they aren’t fighting in the street getting their head smashed into the asphalt.

http://youtu.be/-LKADggv018

There wasn’t a ref to step in and help George Zimmerman that night. So he defended his own life in the only way left to him short of just hoping that Trayvon Martin would stop killing him.