Total gun deaths for the nation are in the neighborhood of 30,000. That includes accidents, suicides, homicides, you name it.
If you believe his numbers, he's seeing around 10% of ALL gun deaths in the nation.
Well, let's give him the benefit of the doubt. He doesn't actually come right out and say that ALL of his autopsies are gun deaths.
In 2003, there were 6,071 deaths in ALL of Fulton County GA (the county encompassing Atlanta). But not every death results in an autopsy--in fact, about 80% do not. That would mean roughly 1200 autopsies were done in all of Fulton County in 2003. This guy claims to do well over 2,000 in a year--about twice the total autopsies one would expect for the entire county.
Seems a stretch to me.
That and the fact (which I mentioned earlier) that he directly contradicts the nearly universally accepted fact that elastic tissue such as blood vessels are not damaged by temporary cavity.
John, if what I suspect about Deadmeat2 is correct, he works for the GBI lab. The GBI lab conducts autopsies for homicides for all over the state of Georgia, with the exception of certain areas of metro Atlanta. Fulton County homicides do not go there for autopsies. Fulton's homicides go to the Fulton County ME's office, which is where I viewed the autopsies I saw. Most of the time I viewed them by slideshow (they were switching from photo-slides to disc); the prosecutor usually views the photos of the autopsy with the doctor (ME) who conducted the autopsy. The average autopsy has about 100 photos, but sometimes there are more or less. I've had as few as 30-40, as many as 300 or close to it.
With regard to 8 autopsies a day, there is just no way that is correct. It may seem like 8 a day, but if you actually start counting, it just isn't the right number. However, a couple years ago, the GBI had a huge case where hundreds, and I do mean hundreds, of bodies were discovered in North West Georgia. This could have raised the GBI's average to about 8 a day, so in that sense it is is possible the average was raised to 8 a day for many months.
About the temporal cavity, that's a hard one. I've seen alot of gunshot wounds, but I need a doctor to tell me what is what alot of the time, and that's after seeing autopsies week after week for years. I'm just not gonna touch that one.
My best guess is, Deadmeat2 is for real, but he over-estimated the number of autopsies. I could be wrong.
By the way, good eye on the numbers. They did not make sense to me either.
-David