Knockout: Ideal. Death: Not Preferable.
I’m sure the Mythbusters could answer this question, if not because they’ve already stumbled through the necessary calculations while testing other myths, then because it’s sort of in their wheelhouse:
When knocking someone out, how do you know how much force to use to render them unconscious, but also to make sure not to kill them?
This topic came to mind not because I’m planning on using this answer practically – with any luck. It’s probably because of LOST, leading the endless parade of TV shows where characters often have no choice but to knock another character out cold before pushing forward the plotline. These characters certainly get a lot of practice (Sawyer, I’m looking at you), and frequently use guns to do this particular job. This priceless technique is so effective and is achieved so easily that I eventually just had to ask myself how this would happen in the real world.
‘Cause it hasn’t come to pass, but if things ever did get dodgy and, I don’t know, a beer bottle found itself in my hand at a bar and some guy was foolish enough to run afoul of some third guy, the angry guy standing right in front of me, eager to take his new crossbow for a spin, the one he brought hoping to use it, then yes, I might have to intercede, hoping none of this becomes fatal.
I guess the answer to my question would be: Swing fast and run, and as long as the target’s distracted long enough to quash some of the danger, if only towards yourself, the unconscious-versus-death angle is moot. Kind of a cop-out answer.
So I guess my next question is: How big is that butter zone, between hitting a guy in the head with a bottle, for example, and NOT knocking him out; and hitting a guy in the head with a bottle and FUCKING KILLING HIM. If it’s a scale of 1-10, and 10 is certain fucking death (to be avoided if possible!) and 1 is the slightest of nuisances, the kind that doesn’t even hurt, without even a scratch or a bump, then how does the middle bit work itself out? Would it be something like, 4-6 for unconscious, 1-4 alive, 6-10 dead? Or would it be 4-5 unconscious? 4-4.5? How difficult is it to knock that metaphorical field goal through?
(NB: This 1-10 scale would be appropriately proportionate to force involved, say, 10 being as hard as any human can hit another with a bottle. I guess we’d need a number of scales for different sexes, ages, etc: Maybe the foremost would be the average adult male.)
So after all, how precise does one have to be? On TV, it just looks effortless.
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