smithers599 said:
Just curious: Do you think "auditory exclusion" would nullify the noise, or do you think the people shooting from inside the car would be deafened? Shooting an AR15 inside a car has got to be loud as hell; I'm wondering what full auto must be like inside a car.
I can't speak for others, but in my own experience in copious amounts of combat in Afghanistan as an Infantryman and having never worn ear pro a single day in country, if your adrenaline is redlining and you are in a fight for your life you probably won't even notice it. When I'm in combat and someone has started shooting at me, firing weapons has no effect on my hearing and there is no ringing in my ears or pain after the firefight (my hearing goes right back to normal). However, when I'm at the range or out shooting in the desert, it hurts a lot and my hearing won't come back fully for a few days if I don't wear ear pro. I carried an M249 SAW for a good portion of my time in Afghanistan even as a team leader (we were undermanned after taking a large number of casualties) and have fired it in tight boxed-in fighting positions, inside HMMWVs, in houses and small rooms, caves, narrow draws, you name it... Not once did firing my weapon in combat situations hurt my hearing or leave me deafened, most of the time I didn't even notice the noise, and when I did it never seemed loud enough to be painful, and once the fight was over my hearing always went back to normal. I must add though, that I do have a slight bit of hearing loss now though from all those experiences.
So, I'm thinking once they knew they were being fired upon by the suspect, they probably didn't even notice the noise when they were firing back.